Thursday, January 10, 2008

All The News That's Fit To Hype

I turned on the TV this morning to get a quick update on the news. I started with CNN which was covering the explosion of a tanker on I-75 in Detroit. That would be news breaking in Detroit but not to me. After 10 minutes I switched to CNN Headline News. Headline News (way, way back) used to be advertised with the slogan, "You Give Us 20 Minutes And We'll Give You The World." Not any more. I got there just before a commercial break and the announcer told me that next up would be a story about a dog that had been bitten by a tiger followed by a story about a sports announcer who was suspended for making a inappropriate remark about Tiger Woods. I switched to MSNBC but it was on commercial break so next I tried FoxNews.

I don't know why I expected anything not sensational from Fox. Fox loves to do "in depth" stories on missing young women. If those women are blond-even better. I switched to Fox in the middle of a phone interview the announcer was having with an Onslow County, North Carolina sheriff about the disappearance of a young Marine, blond of course, from Marine Corp base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina last month.

The generically good looking, young, white, bland news announcer was pushing the sheriff about something he, the sheriff, had allegedly said earlier. The sheriff replied that he did not deal in hunches but only facts. The announcer got a little snarky asking what "facts" could the sheriff share with him.

At this point Fox did something that did not surprise me. Fox is know for taunting their guests if what the guest is saying is not what Fox wants to hear. During this interview Fox had information about the case crawling across the bottom of the screen. After the sheriff said he only would talk about facts, not hunches, Fox changed the crawl to include the words Fox Fact before each sentence. Why anyone would talk to these clowns I'll never understand.

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