Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

According to an unimpeachable source, a recent episode of The Daily Show , Dylan Ratigan has retired from his career at television news. To get TDS' take on it, go to the second segment here . It's about 8:30 and some unavoidable ad segments in. So I looked back at less amusing news sources and found that Ratigan actually left MSNBC almost a year ago. Though I'm not one of his biggest fans, (if I were of course I would likely have noticed his departure sooner), I have mentioned him before. In the blog that I closed down when I opened this one. I wrote a couple of entries there poking some fun at one of Ratigan's colleagues at MSNBC, Charles Gasparino. Here is one of them. You'll note that when Gasparino was pulling his bizarre tantrum, it was Ratigan who played the role of the responsible and somewhat exasperated adult. As it happens, that's the role he plays on the piece in The Daily Show as well. I hope things go well with the farm.

On a recent trip to NYC I discovered ads in the Metronorth train cars promoting Fox Business News on the ground that they have Charlie Gasparino reporting for them. Really?  That's the selling point?  Former CNBC editor Charlie Gasbag has switched over? Remember Charlie isn't at CNBC anymore largely because he flipped out over the air over the harmless expression., "What have you got?" During the worst of the 2008 crisis, on the regular late-afternoon program "Closing Bell," anchor Dylan Ratigan introduced CG, obviously under the impression that CG was about to share with him and us some important new datum about a shakeup in the management ranks at Merrill Lynch. Indeed, the camera than framed Charles' face with the unsubtle words "Mgmt Turmoil Continues at Merrill Lynch" below. Here's a Youtube vido of the weird exchange . Anyway, Charles ended up conveying no news at all and wasting a good deal of time on a rather busy news ...