CNN and other news organizations often state that they are just bringing people what they want in the way of news. This is the ususal defense after cricism of news coverage.
This morning (2 November) CNN Headline News started a story on Prince Charles and Camilla with the headline that a survey showed that only 19% of people in the US gave a damn about the visit of Charles and Camilla. They then spent the next 3 minutes or so expanding on how uninterested in the story people were.
Maybe they had a survey that said that 80% of people were interested in why only 19% were interested.
It doesn’t seem that long ago when the standard lead in to every news segment, every day, for months was “First up: Princess Diana is still dead.” CNN definitely has some sort of British Royalty fetish, and it’s quite annoying.
I stopped watching the nightly news (ABC) years ago for the following reason:
Peter Jennings’ lead story was a poll that said the overwhelming majority of Americans were fed up hearing about Monica and wanted the media to SFU about it. Jennings then spent the next 15 minutes with Monica reports.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. There is no journalism in America anymore.
I think this is CNN being smart. In polls, people say they aren’t interested in the royals, because they know, intellectually, that it’s a stupid thing to be interested in, and they don’t want to be judged by the pollster. But then they buy the fuck out of People magazine when Di or the princes are on the cover.
CNN is winking at the audience: “We know you pretend not to be interested, but we know you really are, but we also know you’re too embarrassed to admit it, so we’re going to simultaneously feed your urge and bracket it in something that allows you to maintain your facade of superiority.”
For the record, I am honestly, truly, totally uninterested in the royals or anything they do.
But damn, People sure sells a lot of magazines with those covers, don’t they?
I can’t find the link now, but yesterday CNN posted a “secret website” that supposedly listed the items that Walmart will be selling the day after Thanksgiving.
Yes, you read that breaking news story correctly: THE ITEMS THAT WALMART WILL BE SELLING THE DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING.
Of course my local TV station picked up this story and teased it with…“What Walmart doesn’t want you to know…next!” :rolleyes:
Yeah, OK, Walmart doesn’t want anyone to know what they will be selling. Uh huh, sure, makes sense. Should I even bring up the fact that if Walmart wanted to keep it a secret that they wouldn’t have POSTED IT ON THE INTERNET!!!?
Plus, are they going to give equal time to K-Mart and Target now??
She’s next to Charles in that picture, though. No way does her ugliness stand out. From a distance, it’s almost a shame they’re too old to have a kid together.
