Over a single weekend both Bill Maher and Alec Baldwin raged against our web-based culture, Breitbart News and any other topic trapped in their craws.
Call it dueling Network-style outburts or two 50-somethings serving up their version of a “get off my lawn” yelp.
Baldwin’s rant–a towering assemblage of name calling and bridge burning–decried TMZ, MSNBC, Breitbart News and gay news commentators to name just a few targets.
The 30 Rock actor is really miffed about having to answer for his serial bad behavior, something that likely would not have happened without New Media. Breitbart News, and other outlets, showcased the hypocrisy of a channel like MSNBC hiring someone who repeatedly tosses hateful word-bombs at anyone with whom he disagrees.
Baldwin lost his MSNBC gig, his Capital One endorsement deal and, likely, the goodwill of some fans.
Maher used his signature HBO series Friday to decry how the Internet is changing the way we consume news as well as the potential for personalized news feeds like Facebook’s new Paper product.
‘Paper’ tracks the news you’re interested in and gives you more of that and less of everything else, never burdening you with contradictory information or telling you anything new. That’s what makes it ‘news.’ But only seeing the stuff that already confirms the opinions you already have isn’t news — it’s Fox News. The reason so many Americans, for example, think climate change is a hoax is that their only source for science news is Glenn Beck, Fox and Matt Drudge, the cracker trifecta.
Not too long ago we all received Maher’s personalized news feed in analog form. It was called ABC/CBS/PBS/New York Times, etc. Now, we can access any number of sites with information that isn’t filtered through a progressive lens. And that simply won’t do for Maher. It’s why he’s raging, along with Baldwin, against a New Media landscape he cannot control.