Watching Live at the White House is a gas (go Susan!).  But I would pay real money, I mean real money, to see Barack Obama dance do the Pee Wee Herman dance to "Tequila."  I bet he could do it, too!

Duncan Black of course picks up on Yglesias's complaint about the heartbreak of ACNE -- Acute Cable News Excitability -- Syndrome.  Atrios makes the point that congressional staffs watch this stuff all the time, even though the rest of the country doesn't.  Taken in that perspective, doesn't that make cable daytime news essentially lobbying?  Wouldn't it then be subject to campaign finance laws?

I link approvingly to Matt Yglesias's reflections on returning to a domestic cable news media environment after an extended stay abroad with CNN International and BBC.  I had a similar experience last week when my father was visiting from Panama.  Like Matt, my Dad the Ex-Pat only has CNN International and BBC.  I work days and so hardly ever watch cable news except for Rachel Maddow. 

Like Matt, both of us were shocked and appalled by the daytime "programming" on the Cable "News."  It's every bit as bad as you might fear.  In fact it's worse.  CNN's programming philosophy is "BE VERY SCARED RIGHT NOW!" which I can only assume is aimed at a senior citizen demographic.  Wolf Blitzer is a MORON.  Every segment he does focuses on "what should the American people be afraid of RIGHT NOW!"  My God, I can't believe that not too many years ago CNN had Bernie Shaw, Mike Sesto and Judy Woodruff.  Fox of course is unspeakable.  And MSNBC?  Sharper than CNN, but still incredibly shallow and vapid.  And no context.  Chris Matthews has on 2 no-names debating whether Israel will attack Iran soon or sooner.  No debate, no context, no discussion of why Israel might NOT attack Iran, why the U.S. may not WANT Israel to attack Iran.  Nothing.  Just Matthews grabbing another chance to make predictions.  Does anyone retrospectively check his batting average?  And of course the political discussions are the narcissistic, self-referential pidgins of cliquey teenagers.  They talk to themselves about themselves with self-insight of developmentally arrested adolescents. 

Hence my new catchphrase ACNE -- Acute Cable News Excitability:  the perfectly natural irritability caused by the non-stop nonsense of daytime cable news.  The question is, how do we cure it?  I applaud President Obama's constant criticism of "news cycles" and propaganda masquerading as news.  But how do you REALLY stop a self-feeding monster so useful to lobbyists, pressure groups, cranks and congress critters?  This is a serious question, I think, for the future of the republic.  I think the answer has to lie in the total lack of viewership that Matt mentions.  What do you think?