Current Events, 04/12/2007...
The Bad News: Kurt Vonnegut died. Were I to exceed by a hundred times my own potential as a writer, I still couldn't carry the man's notepad. Vaya con Dios, amigo...
The Good News: Now, one would pray, we can finally shut the hell up about that no-talent fuckup Imus' stupid blatherings, or who Anna Nicole's baby daddy is, or the Duke Lacrosse players finally getting out from behind the 8-ball on that bullshit fake-rape case, or...
Please, can all of these non-news bullshit headlines just go away?
I think it was Walter Cronkite who once said that the chief responsibility of any news outlet, prior to running a story, is to recognize news value. That is, to determine "is this worth the effort to take up our viewers' time, to tell them about?" Back in the day when you had 30 minutes at dinner time and you weren't competing with 24/7 "news" outlets all over cable, I guess that made sense. To me, it still makes sense. To the rest of the news-porn industry, that's an outrage.
Ever notice how you can actually FOLLOW a news story so much better, when there's NOT a crawl tape running along the bottom of the screen? Yeah, me too. I fail at typical American ferret-on-quad-espresso-and-crack ADHD, sorry.
Bonus: The next time I see an "news update" about American Idol on some network news show (especially one that isn't even Fox, which airs the show), I'm gonna' have to call upon the blessed spirit of Elvis and park a .44 slug right in the damn TV screen.
The Good News: Now, one would pray, we can finally shut the hell up about that no-talent fuckup Imus' stupid blatherings, or who Anna Nicole's baby daddy is, or the Duke Lacrosse players finally getting out from behind the 8-ball on that bullshit fake-rape case, or...
Please, can all of these non-news bullshit headlines just go away?
I think it was Walter Cronkite who once said that the chief responsibility of any news outlet, prior to running a story, is to recognize news value. That is, to determine "is this worth the effort to take up our viewers' time, to tell them about?" Back in the day when you had 30 minutes at dinner time and you weren't competing with 24/7 "news" outlets all over cable, I guess that made sense. To me, it still makes sense. To the rest of the news-porn industry, that's an outrage.
Ever notice how you can actually FOLLOW a news story so much better, when there's NOT a crawl tape running along the bottom of the screen? Yeah, me too. I fail at typical American ferret-on-quad-espresso-and-crack ADHD, sorry.
Bonus: The next time I see an "news update" about American Idol on some network news show (especially one that isn't even Fox, which airs the show), I'm gonna' have to call upon the blessed spirit of Elvis and park a .44 slug right in the damn TV screen.