However, my beef is mostly with CNN, which has reached a level of idiocy that soon will rival that of the almighty Foxian Republican machine. Every morning now, I find myself turning CNN's useless dribble of a morning news program off, fearing their broadcast to forcibly implant stupid in my brain. Over the course of (maybe) the last year or so, CNN has attempted to integrate modern social networking aspects and an overall more "hip" edge to their programming, with pretty abysmal results. At times, they take user comments off of their website, and feature them on the show, if said user said something particularly intelligent or relevant to the issue at hand; this method of integrating technology I think is a positive change. It is a step in the right direction to take the ideas and statements of viewers, and feature them on the show, answering questions and discussing proposed theories and ideas. Sorry, let me correct myself: this would be the correct step if they were not frequently taking user comments of CNN's own personal Facebook page. While I find they primarily use these tidbits in the morning segment of their HLN network, which tries to be much more "hip" and "less dry" than its sister network, it is still an inexcusable method of collecting user input for discussion. These sort of examples only serve to show how social networking sites are truly taking over every aspect of the media, from the news to the internet itself. Next, news networks will start citing from and utilizing other valid web-based sources and sites, such as the faultless Wikipedia and Facebook's ancestor program, Myspace.
Besides specific instances such as these, a general downtrend can be seen in what is actually reported on by the network. It was impossible to ignore the weeks upon weeks of Michael Jackson related news, following the famous performer's death in June of 2009. The real issue at hand is this: news networks are focusing more on attracting viewers and appealing to the general populace, rather than delivering important and pertinent information. I understand this. Obviously, news networks are trying to connect with their viewers, hook them, and keep them coming back for more. These stations need revenue to stay afloat, don't they? Of course they do. Therein lies the problem, the average (American) audience member is pardon me, a f***ing idiot. I'm really not here to insult the average stupidity of our nation's people (although it is undeniably a problem), but this inherent stupidity is forcing our news networks to act stupid, in order to appeal to them. So what kind of news do these people actually want to read? Well, let me bring up an example here. CNN's own website http://www.CNN.com, posts a column on the right side of the page where they list what news stories are the most popular for the day. Let's look at today's, shall we? Oh, *ahem* the title of the article says it all: "Police: Gang rape lasted over two hours". That's all people want nowadays: murders, rape, explosions, and any form of violence you can fathom. An old news saying: "If it bleeds, it leads." You better believe that's true.
I only hope news networks, especially CNN, will pull their heads out of their asses and realize that news is by definition, the presentation of relevant facts and events that occur around our world everyday, and keeping us, a population that cannot be as cogniscient as these news elite, informed of exactly what's going on. Focus needs to be taken off of random violence and atrocities, taken off of "modernizing", and pulled back to actually finding real stories, and reporting on them in an unbiased, interesting, and useful manner. An example of a story that shows how far our news networks have fallen? The very-recent Balloon Boy story, a supposed hoax that was still actively reported on, long after it was theorized, then proven it was a hoax. Don't even get me started on that. Think it out.
I could say more, but that's enough for now.
Keep on your toes,
Me
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