I’m not really an everyday consumer of television political news. I read a lot of newspapers, magazines, and whatever is on the internet that covers politics. The only quasi-news programs I watch regularly are Stewart and Colbert. But I decided, in anticipation of the holiday season, that I would DVR a week of NBC and MSNBC news programs, then report to you, dear reader, my findings. Having just finished viewing Meet the Press, my week is over. This will be a 4 part piece. I hope you enjoy.

The Morning Shows

Joe Scarborough – The show seems to me to be a latter-day recreation of Imus. It has the same type of characters, and political elites seemed to enjoy appearing on it. Joe himself seems to view himself (or his persona on the air) as a gadfly. He pointed out problems with both Democratic and Republican policy positions. He tends to get a little obnoxious (at least to me), when his guest didn’t try to answer his questions, and instead resorted to clichés. There has been a lot of chatter that eventually he would return to political office. I think this is sort of difficult for any talk show personality, though, since invariably they talk so much that they’ve said things that alienate voters.

Mika Brzezinski – Her dad is Zbigniew, a prominent eastern European emigree; he was one of my favorite foreign policy analysts from that era. Unfortunately, for him, he was for awhile involved with the Carter administration, and then advised both Reagan and Bush1. I had high hopes for her, but at least last week, her role seems to be the mommy character (except with great legs, no offense mom). She tries to resolve little internecine spats that arise, and they seem to occur frequently, at irregular intervals, throughout the week. I assume the quarrels are media inventions, since otherwise why would anyone go through this.

Willie Geist – He’s apparently the designated non-political persona on the show. I watched one of his segments, and then fast-forwarded through the rest.

Dylan Ratigan – I always thought this guy was a CNBC person. What he did that I liked was tried to interconnect economics, policy, and politics. He tended to view these things through a populist/liberal lens, but I sort of expected that. One of my favorite shows, since I think TV news neglects the interconnection of these things.