Monday, January 5, 2015

CNN and the Plane Crash


Jayzuzz Fookin' Kee-rice-tah!

So, I go the gym. I go to the change room. The big screen TV is playing CNN and they're talking about that plane from somewhere in East Asia that went down in the ocean somewhere. I shave and then get into my work-out clothes and head out to the gym floor, ... probably around ten minutes, and when I leave, they're STILL talking about the goddamned plane crash!!

My condolences to anyone who lost a loved one in that disaster.

But this has nothing to do with most anybody else on the planet. What are we going to get out of this extended coverage? Are they uncovering problems with planes belonging to less developed countries? Like, maybe the costs of operating an airline aren't being met by the fares and they're cutting corners? Is there SOMETHING that CNN is talking about other than that it's a mystery as to why it crashed and where it is? That bad weather is impeding the search for the black-box?

Is there a reason you're spending 15 minutes on this story and NOT about comparing the NYPD's whining about how protesters against police brutality have the blood of those two slain officers on their hands, but all the racist cops who sang racist songs about Michael Brown, or who say all sorts of other racist things about murdered black men and black men in general, ... why they shouldn't have anything on their consciences?

Maybe you could have an honest interview with anyone skeptical about the Obama administration's case that North Korea was behind the SONY hack?

No, CNN just LOVES plane crashes. The let them pretend that they're journalists, covering an important story, talking with experts, bringing you updates as they happen, blah, blah, blah, fucking-blah.

The sad thing is, the air-heads doing all this actually believe that they're journalists doing journalism. And they are where they are because their owners (and the system their owners serve and profit from) select people who can babble on and on about a lost plane without giving a second thought to the story's overall irrelevance to most people's lives, and who can't bring themselves to question the narrative that their country is democracy and that their leaders are democratic.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

A little off-topic, but I do remember reading recently that CNN's ratings actually went down in the last year. Maybe going on and on about missing planes isn't the big draw they think it is.

thwap said...

It is pretty useless.

I wonder how many people accept late-capitalist consumer society because that's all there is they think, but they do as much as they can to tune it out.

opit said...

When content is created on the notion that it can stimulate consumption of consumer goods, then you have to figure it will be irrelevant by definition.

thwap said...

opit,

The guy over at the blog "a tiny revolution" has a meme for those who wish that corporate news were better.

"there's no santa claus."

Corporate news is what it is and there ain't no changing it.

When I went into the gym this morning, they were still talking about the fucking plane crash. How if the bad weather keeps up, maybe they'll never find the black box.

To be fair, they had a decent discussion about the Ferguson grand jury member who is suing the prosecutor.

CNN doesn't always try to make you consume. it tries to make you sit there for the ads that come between their pointless segments.

And the more apolitical the subject matter they put in front of people, the better it is for their advertisers.