Posts filed under ‘This is News?’
Fox News Touts “Holiday Mall Hours” as “Right Now” News
This is a screenshot of Fox31/KVDR’a website as of 11:26 p.m. ET:
“Right now” news = “Metro Denver Holiday Mall Hours?”
Since when is it acceptable for a “news” organization to shill for shopping malls? I go to a “news” channel for news, not for an advertisement as to were to buy stuff.
Back in the day, there was news and there were ads. They were separate. Now they’re not.
They call that fascism.
Sarah Palin’s on a “Mercy Mission?”
This is a “Yahoo News” headline (via the AP) from yesterday afternoon: “Sarah Palin Arrives in Haiti With Mercy Mission.”
How dumb do they think we are? How about: Sarah Palin Arrives in Haiti on a Mission to Get Attention from the Media?
American Media Fail
So, 2,000 people gathered last night in NYC “in support of religious freedom and the right to build a mosque near Ground Zero” but the big story on the teevee this morning is that the moronic Terry Jones, with 50 followers, has decided not to burn the Koran.
When, oh when, will we have a better media?
The News as He Said, She Said
This USAToday article — World Sizzles to Record for the Year — is a spectacular example of he said, she said “journalism” that is now known as news. I.e., statements made by Jay Lawrimore, the chief climate analysis at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center for God’s sake, are “balanced” by quotes from an admitted climate change “skeptic,” Marc Morano, who is a blogger.
“Dowdy Kitchen Man”
Charlie Brooker of the BBC’s “PM Now!” put together this video explaining how and why the average television “news” report is so formulaic and boring.
The State of “News” in America
Why is my local “news” channel airing a story about how Subway restaurants are now accepting orders via Twitter?
Is that news? Really?
Does the Washington Post Expect Anything of Dana Milbank?
Back in the day — four or five years ago — when I first started blogging at the News Hounds, wingers and skeptics jumped on every single teeny tiny mistake I made. A misplaced comma, a bad link — you name it; they ripped me to shreds.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that my credibility was on the line as was everything I wrote. What I “said” had to be researched, documented and pretty much perfect or else my whole persona was suspect and if I screwed up, it reflected badly not only on me, but on my fellow bloggers.
Bearing that in mind, I wonder why someone like Dana Milbank still has a job, at the formerly august Washington Post no less. (I’m thinking about the long-gone class and professionalism that Katharine Graham had but that her kids and grandkids have squandered.)
So, anyway, does Milbank know how to use the Google? Guess not.
“The News” According to The Weather Channel
This morning just before 7:00 a.m. ET, I turned on The Weather Channel. At the top of the hour, the anchors introduced themselves and then went to a “news break.” The “news” consisted of three stories:
1) Photos of the underwear worn by the guy who tried to blow up the airplane on Christmas Day,
2) Bristol Palin trying to gain sole custody of her son Tripp, and
3) A cow that was “raised” by dogs.
In all the world, those three stories were deemed the most important by the folks at The Weather Channel.
It boggles the mind.
This is News?
I’m so happy to know that nothing more important than this is happening in the world: The top story on the Denver affiliate of CBS News tonight was about a baby being born at 30,000 feet on a plane that eventually landed in Denver. (Mom and baby doing fine.)
Thank God for the Internet.
