Commentary: The Worst Parts Of Cable TV News, All In One Segment

On Wednesday, I argued that the cable news channels should stop allowing themselves to be gaslighted into talking about the topics that Donald Trump believes are important. It's a predictable editorial cycle that has played out again and again over the past two years. Donald Trump makes some off-handed comment he may or may not even believe. But it's noteworthy and often a little unbelievable. So of course, cable news jumps into covering the comments, leading to the President criticizing their coverage. Which inevitably ends up with the news equivalent of a snake swallowing its own tale as the back-and-forth spins into a ever-smaller circle.

The cable news channel cycle over the past 24 hours has followed this time-worn path. Following the discovery of bombs mailed to CNN and some top Democratic politicians, cable news hosts spent much of yesterday afternoon speculating about how President Trump would discuss the day's events. And then Donald Trump dutifully does his part, first implying at the rally that anger from Democrats and fake news coverage from journalists might be making things worse. And then weighing in Thursday morning with the tweet chaser:

 

This led to inevitable cable news channel discussion panels about civility in politics. And since they are mostly booked with guests who are guaranteed to disagree, it's a win-win for everyone. Expect perhaps for viewers, who are confronted with yet another news segment that is all heat and no light.

Which brings us to a segment from today's MSNBC daytime show "MSNBC Live With Katy Tur." The subject was civility in politics and one of the two guests was politically conservative American blogger and radio host Erick Erickson, who was apparently there to argue the anti-civility side. Or at the very least, the side arguing that while President Trump might not be civil, he's not as bad as Democrats.

If you're booking a segment on civility in politics and you book Erick Erickson, you're not expecting to hear a nuanced take on the dangers of anger in the political process. Erickson is a guy who once tweeted a picture of a bullet-ridden front page of the NY Times. He once took to Twitter to describe retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter as "the only goat fucking child molester to ever serve on the Supreme Court”. Erickson has argued President Obama won the Nobel Prize because of an "affirmative action quota" and once gave an interview to Fox Business Network in which he argued males dominate females in the "natural world" and it was only "science" for men to be the breadwinners for their family.

Erick Erickson is not someone you book if you're hoping for an informed and well-measured conversation. Erickson is Ben Shapiro's affable political uncle. He serves up the red meat, but he has the media savvy to admit that some of his comments are "ill-advised."

Predictably, Erickson and host Katy Tur get into an on-air argument about civility, which is just as oddly ironic as it sounds. And as you see in the clip below. both sides get what they want. Erickson gets to walk away claiming the mainstream media is always trying to shut up conservatives. And Katy Tur is able to show off her journalistic backbone as she creates another social media moment.



The segment illustrates the worst tendencies of cable network news programs. Discussions are booked in a way that best insures there will be plenty of on-air heat. What happens next isn't scripted, but like a B-level professional wrestling battle, everyone knows why they're there. And the fact that this specific discussion is the result of some trolling comments from Donald Trump makes the resulting segment even more disheartening.

Cable news networks already spend entirely too much time covering politics like it was a sporting event. And if that's the case, then segments like this one are the Arena Football of political discourse.