And it probably isn’t the reason you think.
I’m currently temping at a Business Which Shall Not Be Named (Mostly Because It Isn’t Relevant) and they’re nice enough to have a couple of big-screen TVs scattered throughout the building, mainly because the work doesn’t actually engage the brain beyond the simple motor reflexes, and my particular duty stations me right next to one. This means I wind up watching CNN for the better part of eight hours each day while I work. (This may explain why the posts on my own blog have become somewhat more political lately. Sorry, but hearing Governor Walker explain why he raided the pension fund for Wisconsin’s teachers and gave it to his rich buddies, and why this means that he has to take away their right to negotiate contracts…it kinda gets to ya after a while.)
But that’s not what actually depresses me. (Actually, the Egypt stuff was pretty uplifting; it’s sort of how you imagine revolutions happening in the movies, with almost nobody getting hurt and the noble resistance triumphing simply through being Right and having Stick-To-It-Ive-Ness. At any moment, you expected Mubarak to suddenly remember, “Hey, I’ve got guns and tanks and shit!” And he never did.) Certainly, I’m not fond of CNN’s style of reporting, but it’s not so much that I feel like they’ve got a bias as it is that they seem so desperate to prove they don’t have a bias that they never challenge anyone on anything, ever. A CNN interview with Charles Manson would go something like this:
CNN Reporter: “Mr. Manson, your followers murdered seven people, including a woman who was almost nine months pregnant, and planned to murder others. Do you think that maybe this is something you should apologize for?”
Manson: “No.”
CNN Reporter: “I see. Now, regarding your relationship with Brian Wilson…”
But none of that is what depresses me. No, what depresses me are the ads. I’m not sure whether CNN just has unbelievably low standards, or whether the various advertisers have targeted CNN’s demographics with razor-sharp precision and realized that 99% of the people watching CNN at 1 in the afternoon are either gullible elderly folks or people out on workman’s comp, but watching the ads on CNN all day is like a non-stop bath in human misery. Easily half the ads feel like borderline scams (overpriced insurance, dubious financial advice, lawyers explaining to you how you can sue/outwit the IRS/get a free scooter, the occasional right-wing screed) and the rest drop the “borderline” part. One in particular, which apparently warns of the “END OF AMERICA” that this financial genius predicted, feels like it’s the work of someone about two steps ahead of the law.
And what’s most depressing is that all this is showing on a news network. In theory, at least, these people are devoted to the ideals of honesty. They have cultivated a reputation for trustworthiness, and these ads cloak themselves in that reputation in order to seem like they, too, can be trusted. But they so patently and obviously can’t that you find yourself pitying the poor soul who really does believe that they need term life insurance, or that they can make money by investing in gold, or that the Health Care Reform Bill is unconstitutional and Mike Huckabee really needs their help in repealing it before it’s Too Late. Because you know there are people like that out there, people who believe these ads because they’re on CNN and CNN wouldn’t lie to them. And that, my friends, is why I get depressed watching CNN.
Well, that and trying to imagine how inadequate Wolf Blitzer must feel that he needs to name his news show, “THE SITUATION ROOM”.
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Well actually, Mubarak was put in place by the military, and during the revolution they decided not to help him and play the good guys. We have yet to see if things will actually change or if the military will only find another Mubarak to reign with an iron fist.
” Sorry, but hearing Governor Walker explain why he raided the pension fund for Wisconsin’s teachers and gave it to his rich buddies, and why this means that he has to take away their right to negotiate contracts…it kinda gets to ya after a while.”
… Doesn’t this actually make perfect sense, in an evil fashion? I mean, of COURSE you need to limit the rights of the people that you are victimizing, otherwise they might be able to stop you. And his rich buddies definitely needed that money, or else they might not have been able to set up shell corporations to manipulate the next election in their favour.
There will always be suckers. That CNN, instead of learning ’em, makes more of them by allowing Fox News’ accusations of liberal bias dictate their fairness policy is, to me, far sadder.
What’s really sad about Wolf Blitzer is that he started off, just with his name, so far ahead of the curve on coolness, and lost it all.
Wolf Blitzer, born 22/03/48….
Two more years, baby. And his money is in 401s, not company pension. When the network goes down, it’ll be Wolf that’s laughing. Because Wolf’s rich, baby.
Cut ahead five years. It’s half an hour after the supermarket opens. Because Wolf, he doesn’t need to line up at opening to get his hands on markdown cake. He eats breakfast at Starbucks. Starbucks! Because he’s rich, baby.
Down the aisles he goes, stopping employees, telling them about Oahu and Mazatlan. He goes three times every winter. Because he’s rich, baby.
He wears a Tilly vest and a Tilly hat, and he carries his Iphone so he can check his busy schedule. He’s as with it as he is rich, baby.
Then to MacDonald’s for coffee with the gang. that’s what they can afford. Not him. Once a week, he buys. More than that, they’d resent. They all know he’s rich, baby.
His Filipino helper picks him up then. She’s young and pretty. He doesn’t need a helper. He’s just got one. He doesn’t even need a scooter. He’s trim and healthy, like rich people are. Baby.
Next he’s on his way to dinner with the nephews and the nieces. He’s got a standing invite, because he lent Mom and Dad the money for the reno. Dinner’s good, but best is hearing the kids play “who wants Uncle Wolf’s money more?” Uncle Wolf’s rich, baby.
You think Wolf’s not cool? Dream on, baby.
The dread secret of military leadership has nothing to do with weapons or tactics, it’s the simple fact that an officer daren’t give an order he KNOWS won’t be obeyed. The senior officers of the Egyptian army realized this, while the senior officers of the Libyan army have evidently forgotten it.
I listen to a lot of XM Radio’s “Radio Classics” channel and their ads are much the same sort of thing: Fear, Gold, Fear, Malware, Fear, Prostate, Fear, and Insurance on a constant loop.