I’ve long been amused by CNN’s wacky mixture of
“human interest stories” and “real news” — neither of which are interesting to humans, or in any way real. They have a real knack for the most inappropriate segues. Yesterday, while at the dentist, I saw them segue from a mass-murder trial to a story about siamese tortoises.
Today’s “Top Stories” from CNN.com don’t disappoint. As my friend Isaac puts it, “somedays i think they just make them up – to see what people would believe”.
You just can’t make stuff like that up.
Added in the last half hour since you made that post:
– FBI releases pizza bomb note
– Reba missing from ‘Reba’ set
As I work at home, I am able to watch CNN quite regularly – especially in the morning. Yes, they are a crazy bunch of Yankees. They do, however give a panoramic view of “how’s it going, eh?” in the USA. I keep close watch on our news, yes. It is important to keep an eye on our southern neighbours, who for better or worse, influence us so significantly.
And more from today:
– AOL: Women over 40 doing most online gaming
– Comcast makes $54 billion bid for Disney
Re: Comcast bid. They were only off by 12 billion the first time they reported it…
Everyone else was reporting the $66 billion figure too. I think it came from the AP wire and everyone picked it up. That one’s not necessarily CNN’s fault.
What are you guys doing reading CNN anyway? Google news seems to offer much better variety.
‘Twould seem to me that they’re actually just using AP feeds. AP has long done “wacky news” with funny headlines; it’s just now that people are seeing them.
I remember working in radio news back in 1997 and always getting a chuckle at the feed heads that would come across the teletype. 😀
This isn’t uncommon in the media (i.e. making up filler stories), especially newspapers.
I spoke to the editor of the Dundee Courier (popular newspaper in the city of Dundee in Scotland), and he said it was a common occurence to make up filler stories to plug gaps in the newspapaper.
In fact, they have drawers full of them, in case it’s a slow news day.
The Dundee Courier is famous for it’s Dundee-centric headlines, and once ran a headline when the news of the Titanic sinking reached the UK:
DUNDEE MAN DROWNS AT SEA
I remember CNN had a story of a man that burned his penis via laptop 😛