I've been becoming increasingly disillusioned with CNN for some time now. The over-coverage of "big stories," the incestuous pandering (other CNN people used as guests so that they can hawk their books and tv shows), the appearance of anchors as themselves in movies, the 3 liberals vs. 1 conservative typical "round table" discussion, the anchors with obvious biased agendas . . . I could go on, but I already have in the past, so STOP there. But I was listening to a radio program the other day and the anchor said something along the lines of "CNN spent an inordinate amount of time covering Stormy Daniels"--something like 40% of the news hour, maybe even more. And I wondered if that could be true. It kind of felt like it could be. I know that I'm sick of hearing about SD. Not because I don't think it's important. But because The News About Stormy isn't news. It's just plowing into the same old shit over and over again. If there's something new, report it. If not, shut the fuck up. There's some shit going on elsewhere in the world that's a bit more important than how many dancing gigs Stormy is now getting because of her "fame."
ANYway. I decided to do a little sample survey. And I kept track of one hour's worth of stories on CNN from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Not scientific, I know. But interesting. Here's what happened:
7:30 NRA challenges Florida law re: raising minimum age for gun purchase
7:34 Tariff tease, then commercials
There was a little Current Mortgage Rates blip, then back to commercials--the first of which was for Rocket Mortgage. [5']
7:39 Tariff exceptions for Canada, Mexico, and maybe Australia
7:45 Stormy Daniels [4']
7:49 commercials [4']
7:53 Former Russian spy poisoned
7:55 dog saves man from obesity
7:56 commercials [4']
8:00 Stormy Daniels, North Korea, NRA suit, and shooting mélange
8:01 Stormy Daniels [5']
8:06 Tariff exceptions . . . less than 30 minutes after previous story . . . and I'm pretty sure that this is actually the same film loop. Then a new bit which shifts at 8:12 to Pennsylvania special election.
NRA suit, Jane Seymour Playboy, and horse in nightclub tease
8:15 Commercials [3']
8:18 Three women killed in Virginia by PTSD vet
8:20 NRA challenges Florida gun law--50 minutes since previous story, same clips of governor speaking
8:22 teases, to commercials [5']
8:27 Trump meeting with Kim Jong-un
And that story was still rolling at 8:30, but I'd had enough, so I killed it.
Interesting. In that hour, CNN spent 9 - 10 minutes (including the tease stuff) on Stormy Daniels. They spent about 15 minutes on the Tariff story. And about 6 minutes on the Florida gun law. They also gave 21 minutes to commercials. Wow. I knew it was bad, but sheesh, that's 1/3 of the broadcast hour. Maybe I just chose a bad hour? I doubt it. Something else that I found interesting . . . and by "interesting" I mean absolute bullshit: that little Mortgage Rates blurb--which was delivered by one of the anchors--immediately followed by a commercial for Rocket Mortgage. That is some sleazy ass shit for a news channel.
As for Stormy . . . well, maybe what the radio guy said was true of the hour that he watched, but clearly she was not the most covered story in the hour that I watched today. Of the 39 Actual News Minutes of this hour, though, she did get about 25% of the time. And what did we learn about this story? We learned that Stormy previously was only dancing once a month, but now she is dancing 4 to 5 times a month, and that is making it hard for her to keep up with her other ventures . . . making adult films and Other Projects. Fuuuuuuuck. This is just pandering. It's absolute and complete bullshit.
And you know what? I think that this has helped me to come to a decision: I'm done with CNN. It is not my Most Trusted Name in News, even if Darth Vader says it should be.
Maybe I'll spend an hour with MSNBC tomorrow.
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