I can just imagine how repetitive and boring this channel is. Like watching the cable news channels for an hour. *shudder*
Be careful what you wish for. In this era of media superficiality, newsroom budget cuts and celebrity worship, there's also a growing call for depth and tough reporting on the crucial issues of our time, such as the election of a president.I think I'll pass!
Enter the next phase of niche media: XM Satellite Radio has launched a 24/7 channel devoted exclusively to presidential politics.
So I subject myself to 24 hours of Channel 130, POTUS '08 (the name is the acronym for president of the United States). There, I learn that "the question of the day," "the one question I have to ask," "the big question," "the real question right now," "the question I can't let you go without asking" is the one that XM's political voices ask their guests an average of three times an hour:
"Is it over?" "Should we go home?" "Does she have it?" "Has Hillary gone over the top?" "At this point, she can't be stopped, right?"
The responses on POTUS (where, as XM puts it, "everyone is an insider") are various versions of "Yes," delivered with basso profundo confidence, hedged slightly in hopes that a competitive Democratic race might yet return, or spoken with a knowing chuckle. Again and again, reporters, bloggers and consultants declare New York Sen. Hillary Clinton the Democratic nominee, after which Channel 130's announcer reminds us that there are 403 days to go before the 2008 election.
[...]
XM is cobbling together POTUS with a sprinkle of magic and a thimbleful of hope. There are no ads on the channel; it's just one more stream of content designed to lure people into paying a monthly fee for lots and lots of radio choices. So POTUS won't be hiring its own fleet of reporters to go out and get the news. That's way too old school.
Instead, POTUS has four radio pros, anchors who interview anyone who has ever written a book about presidential politics. (Believe me, I have heard them all in 24 hours. The guy who wrote about black Republicans. The guy who wrote about what it's like to be vice president. The guy who wrote about the electoral college.)
[...]
Then I realize I am listening to the same interview with Duncan Hunter -- yes, a man named Duncan Hunter is running for president -- for the fourth time in nine hours. And I still don't know who he is. (Answer: longtime Republican congressman from California; pro-defense and anti-immigration hardliner.)
