WTF, CNN?

Jesus Christ! We've got wars in the Middle East, bird flu, Novermber elections coming up, and so I turn to CNN, our supposed purveyor of national and international news.

So, among their "headlines":
# Why the gay rumors dog Oprah and Superman
# Girly Britney rips manly belch on home video
# Big rig fire kills 60 caged puppies
# German authorities watching Madonna
# Mr. Kentuckyfriedcruelty.com reverts to Chris

Let's take this point-by-point.
# Who gives a shit?
# Who gives a shit?
# That's sad, but really... in the grand scheme of things, who gives a shit?
# Who gives a shit?
# Who gives a shit?

Am I alone in being completely nonplussed about the array of pedestrian, shallow and vapid crap that passes for news anymore? "Oh, dear, Britney burps! Dear me! Next thing, you'll tell me she defecates like the rest of us!" Are people really more concerned about Christie Brinkley's philandering husband than, say... the broiling tensions around Sri Lanka? The deaths of Lebanese and Israelis in their conflict? The death of our own men and women that continue in Iraq?

Jesus, man. Ponderous. Just ponderous.

 

cnn.com is my home page. I noticed it this summer.

 

Covering Needless News

 

i think it's missing the forest for the trees to say people care so much more about this garbage than the middle east. the middle east coverage is still there but people can only take so much of the same headlines about what's going on in iraq. i mean every single day we get a couple dozen iraqis killed in a car bombing or ambush or whatever. it's sad and it's horrible but running the same stuff every day isn't what sells papers (or in this case brings in web users).

 

That's true. And actually the way major events are covered is a problem too.

Iraq..Iraq..Iraq..Katrina..Katrina..Katrina..Iraq...Iraq...Iraq...Middle East..Middle East...Middle East...Heathrow..Heathrow...Heathrow

Beating the viewer over the head with a major story is just as bad as spending too much time on shit like Britney's parenting skills and Oprah's sexual preference.

 

I've noticed CNN.com has tabloid stories in its headlines everyday now. I've switched to MSNBC.com

Last week when I tuned to CNN trying to get the Lieberman-Lamont election results, I got 2 straight hours of Isreal-Lebanon coverage-- with nary a mention of the "big" race they'd talked about all day.

Meanwhile, I go to MSNBC to get the results, and they have 2 hours of "documentary" bullshit -- something about vampires.

I had to go to Fox Freakin' News to get the results. That's sad.... So I was forced to listen to that Cameron freak-reporter editorialize about what idiots the people in Connecticut are for voting the way they did. Oh well, at least I got the results.

 

News and politicians. Fun.

The day the terrorist threat thing went down in Britian, I'm watcing MSNBC...they are interviewing a poitician, all I know is he's a democratic congressman...but that's hardly the point.

They are asking him his take on the events, and why, he says "Ever Bush decided to invade Iraq, we have become a major target of terrorism"

Hmmm. I just found that odd....and if not for, something, say, umm....September 11...I might be inclined to agree. (Unless of course he was talking about the first Bush....but he wasn't)

For Full Disclosure: I voted for Bush. Not a big fan of this war.

But politicians really need to think before they speak. And worse, the MSNBC people just moved on, didn't question this statement.

I hate the news, I hate politicians.

 

I've been frequenting the BBC site lately because of this crap.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
They have their trifling stuff as well, but far less of it, and the Queen's service does actually strive to cover the freakin' world.

As for the note on repitition of Middle East, Iraq, etc. -- the point is there is so much more going on around the world that repitition isn't necessary. Check out the BBC site. Top item is Lebanon, seconded by Sri Lanka and a story on crime rates among Katrina evacuees. Then:
"OTHER TOP STORIES
Heavy rain mars Ethiopia rescue
Sharon suffering from pneumonia
Iran displays Holocaust cartoons
Minorities rise in most US states
German births decline to new low
UN condemns Aborigines' housing"

There is actual news out there. It's engaging.

 

i would guess that every one of these stories is on cnn.com, just not on the headlines link on the homepage. there are hundreds of new stories each day, right? and they can only link to a handful at a time.

 

Breaking news! Jessica Simpson just farted. Stay tuned for details!

 

I get my news from d-b.com:

--Gulf of Tonkin Resolution is passed.
--Braves will move to Atlanta.
--Patrice Lumamba leads an uprising in the Congo.
--Gerry and the Pacemakers breaking up.
--DuMont Network announces fall schedule.

 

Geraldo is reporting that it was a Shart.