The past few times I’ve flown out of the minneapolis airport, it’s been impossible to shut CNN out in the waiting areas. And it’s like I’m watching subtly different variations on the same theme. “Murder and danger to your children, stay tuned for more updates.” And of course, these are unusual or extreme cases in far away places. But I can see how people who turned to CNN for their news could easily turn into shutins afraid of the outside world. I especially loved how the kid who wasn’t allowed to go out, and was being teased by kids at home and online has his suicide attributed to The Internet. Not because he had no life, nothing to do, and nothing to put perspective or meaning in his life. No, it was The Internet. A prime news competitor for television (and to my mind, flat out superior), isn’t that an amazing coincidence. Cherrypicking your stories anyone?
I have not forgotten the questions post, I’ll get right on that, after I finish my taxes. =)
Aren’t CNN’s biggest sponsors Paxil and other anti-anxiety medications? 😉
i watch cnn or today at the gym when i am on the treadmill in the morning. i totally agree with the way they pick their stories and how they tell them. Since they only have a short period of time to tell the story they hit all the high points and report it like “He was on The Internet and he committed suicide therefore The Internet must have caused it”. They work at giving the impression that they are reporting the whole story but since they have 3 or 4 mins to tell it, there is no way to cover all the aspects of it. This is what is the most distrubing to me about cnn. how hard they work at making you believe that this is a well researched and reported story.
I almost never watch any television news broadcasts. I consider a lot of today’s news stores to be little more than gossip. Robberies, murders, etc. that happen to other people have little effect on me or my opinions. “Entertainment” or “lifestyle” stories are even more useless.
I read newspapers instead because I can easily ignore the fluff and fear and get the information that I want.
Fortunately, the last time I flew out they just had the pope’s funeral on repeat, so they were just playing lots of pretty singing by the choir boys, but yeah, MSP reeks of CNN.