CNN… For the love of God… Lots of live footage from hearings on the Anna Nicole Smith hearing… People walking around a courtroom and chatting to the beat of talking heads (sadly not The Talking Heads).
Commercial break.
More Talking Heads on where the body might be buried eventually. Now there is an image of her mother talking to someone. No audio… Still talking heads.
Other news (when they do go on to other news)… Brittney Spears shaved her head. Is this a sign of mental breakdown? Let’s get a few psychologist talking heads in here to chat with the regular talking head.
Back to picture of Anna in wide mouthed scream of HIIIII!!! or something like that.
A note that Howard K. Stern should not be confused with the radio host Howard Stern.
Clip of walk and talk interview with a lawyer near the courthouse…
Commercial. Back to how Brittney cut her hair.
:mad:
The Larry King show is always on when I’m at the gym. Does he ever interview people who are legitimately newsworthy, or is it always some D-list celebrity hanger-on? Why oh why does that show air on CNN and not E! or VH1?
I don’t deny that I’ve a morbid interest in the Anna Nicole case (unknown c.o.d., unknown paternity, absurdity [Zsa-Zsa’s prince, frozen sperm, and just the fact she was a superstar in the first place when she had no talent])- you couldn’t make this stuff up. That said I can get my fix with five minute updates.
What drives me nuts is that there’s NOTHING new to report and yet they still keep filling up the airwaves with it. I don’t need 2 hours to tell me that Howard Stern’s sleazy, Anna Nicole was a druggie, her mother’s a bitch, Daniel and the billionaire are still dead, etc… If they find out who Dannie Lynn’s daddy is then tell it, and don’t even interrupt the news coverage- just let it be known on a headline break or a feed. IT’S NOT WORTH ROUND THE CLOCK COVERAGE!
When I heard she was dead the first words I said were “Well, she just made sure another old man get’s erections for a year”- this one being Larry King. My favorite moment was when they were interviewing some celebrity PI on the case on a CNN Headline News then switched to the “Coming up next is Nancy Diss Grace… Nancy, what’s on your show tonight?” Nancy answered “Well [generic announcer name], tonight is dedicated to what killed Anna Nicole and we’ll have special guest investigator [Brick Waller or Jerk Peterbilt or whatever the name was]…” and it was exactly the same guy the Headline News crew had just been interviewing!
I think it was Lou Dobbs who announced there’d be no Anna Nicole on his show. Gave me some respect for the man. Anderson Cooper’s also been moderate in his coverage.
Britney I couldn’t care less about. If she dives a plane into the White House then it’s newsworthy, otherwise she can gain 300 pounds and tattoo a life size image of thin Britney on her left buttcheek while having babies by both Wahlberg brothers and I couldn’t care less. She’s just annoying, not interesting (though at least unlike Anna Nicole she has talent and worked hard for her money).
I just hopped onto FoxNews.com because I was reading the Cafe Society thread about the new Daily Show ripoff, and apparently Bill O’Reilly will be covering the shaving of Britney’s head.
I don’t get it. I can understand if everyone wanted to cover it as the lighthearted segue out of the program at the end, but it’s getting major coverage. She must have an album coming out soon or something.
You know, it really sucks to get old. I can actually remember when CNN news was better and more in depth than the network news. I tried telling that to my kids and they just laughed at me!
(Shakes head and wanders away, searching for meaning in life)
I’d like to see CNN launch yet another channel. Call it “HOT TOPIC NEWS” or whatever and use it to drain off the excess fat from their “real” news channel. This way people who wanted to spend 4 hours watching live coverage of Anna’s alien autopsy or whatever could and those who’d really like to hear what’s happening in Congress, Iraq, the Mexican border, whatever, would get a shot. (How many Americans could correctly identify Howard K. Stern as Anna Nicole’s partner v. how many could find Iraq on a blank map v. how many could name any commander of CENTCOM from this century, do you suppose?)
This is because it’s no longer good enough to report the news. You have to show the news while its happening.
I first noticed it with the OJ Simpson slow speed chase. I remember it vividly, not because it was important, but because NBC pre-empted the NBA finals to show a fucking Bronco sitting in a driveway. God forbid you show the live program you’re supposed to show, and just update us if something interesting happens. Nope, we have to sit and watch NOTHING, for who the fuck knows how long.
Second was TWA 800. I was unemployed at the time, and watched a lot of TV, good for me. CNN goes LIVE to the press conference where the investigator says, for the 20th time “we found a few more random plane parts washed up on the beach” Gee, thanks, we really needed to preempt programming again for that stunning revelation.
I believe it was Stefanopolous I saw interviewed once who said that the White House and other agencies check the TV listings before doing any type of special address. He specifically mentioned that one intended address was rescheduled because it would interfere with the 2nd part of a Roseanne episode. Unless it’s to report there’s been an alien invasion or the Statue of Liberty is in flames, interruptions for weighty matters that pre-empt highly popular shows will actually interfere with a politician’s popularity.
So goes Fox News, so goes every other news network because they’re all ratings whores. We have them to thank for raising the bar on journalism to the lofty pedastal it now resides upon. Perhaps when more people start watching CNN and MSNBC than Fox News, the reverse will be true … but I doubt it, I doubt it. It’s all about what the viewers want, or at least what the networks think the viewers want based on ratings.
And right now, viewers want Britney’s shaved head and hearings on Anna Nicole’s life of utter pointlessness.
CNN? You still watch that? I gave up on cable news way back when they had the Michael Jackson trial on CONSTANTLY. It seems to have become local news, but with a news feed at the bottom of the screen.
