Posts tagged CNN
CNN.com’s recession solution: bourbon
December 15th, 2010 | 6:46 pm
Sponsorships can make for priceless visuals.
saudi arabia vs. the sorcerers
March 19th, 2010 | 4:14 pm
According to a story from the CNN, a Lebanese man has been sentenced to death for the crime of sorcery in the wonderful country of Saudi Arabia.
For some reason, Amnesty International has their panties in a bunch about the death sentence being levied against people for crimes that don’t actually exist. AI is petitioning the Saudi king to pardon the man who is a talk show host who, apparently, regularly predicts the future and dispenses advice to callers (and is seen above casting a spell which has made Saudi Arabia be such a horrible place to live these last many centuries).
My question is this: are these Saudi authorities that far removed from some far-down-the-rabbit-hole religious folks in this country in regards to their reaction to, say, the unyielding meat orgy from beyond the grave known as the Harry Potter series? Many Christian groups have voiced their detached and logical concerns about this popular set of children’s books and films (which, in their defense, were first published in Europe, where both Karl Marx and the Bubonic Plague came from). Take the following gems for example:
“Clara Sessoms, who manages Living Water Christian Books in Marion, Ind. [says] ‘I don’t think people fully realize what they’re dealing with, and I think anyone who knows anything about spiritual warfare knows those books can open the door to spiritual bondage.
‘And I think it’s worse that children are the target,’ said Jessica Ruemler, a buyer for Living Water. ‘It opens the doors for young minds. You put sorcery in, what do you expect to get out?’”
I wonder what the reaction would be if you took any of our domestically-produced nut bags into a sealed room where they could be assured they wouldn’t be quoted on record as having spent time thinking about the threat of sorcery, and asked them if the United States should execute people for practicing black magic. How many of them would summon the imputes to nod their chins in agreement somewhere deep within the mountain of flesh born from decades of slothful and undeterred ho-ho consumption? Or, would they be more libertarian in their view towards their fellow countrymen who happen to be actual real life witches and sorcerers (which, it should be noted, there are many, because supernatural powers are not only awesome, but very not made-up).
I am hopeful that there exists a real philosophical divide between the fundamentalists who live in the desert and those bangin’ around in the exurbs. But I’m fearful that the only difference between domestic nuts and their counterparts abroad is simply a matter of access to authority. From my experience as a passive witness to the events of recent history, I’ve come to the opinion that, unfortunately, people around the world have a lot more in common than we like to let on.
Kumbaya.
we are all Woodward and Bernstein!
January 13th, 2010 | 11:32 am
It’s official! News is dead. Well, not dead, but transformed into a state nearly unrecognizable from its previous incarnation. “News” is no longer be about writers and journalists, but about editors and aggregators. And also, of course, You (the You who was Time’s person of the year a while back).
If there is a catastrophe or phenomenon in a small town in some country somewhere, there’s no real reason to send a “reporter” there to separate the true from the rumors. There are already reporters on the ground. Millions of uncredentialed and biased reporters.
Social networks, with no barrier to join or participate, are the new points of information. News organizations are now (officially!) collecting tweets and blogposts and sorting through the information to serve up as news.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, by the way.
Really, social networks are merely a new data-collecting source and the editors, acting as gatekeepers, will be the new journalists. They will come with their own view points, their own biases, their own corporate owners, their own conflicts and all their own drama. Basically it will be as it is now.
One of the most forward-thinking media entities has actually been CNN. And they have been the most explicit about embracing this new state of news. This was most explicit with their recent coverage of the earthquake in Haiti:
Even Mashable was reporting on the various pictures of devistation coming in via Twitter. This was a level of immediacy unthinkable even five years ago.
Inevitably, there will be the time when a MSM entity will be fooled (or outright dooped). Someone will figure out a way to make a phenomenon look like it’s happening and it will find its way into a major news venue. But misinformation worms its way through now. As long as there are multiple and competing editors and sources, the journalistic status quo will survive.
P.S. If you text “Haiti” to 90999 $10 will be given to the Red Cross for disaster relief and added to your phone bill. (via whitehouse.gov) I did.
CNN = Bullshit
December 22nd, 2009 | 6:30 pm
Dear CNN.com,
Your recent piece of “reporting” from CNN.com, asks the question “Did Clinton meet with Santa?”
On the way to her home in New York from Washington, Assistant Secretary PJ Crowley told reporters Clinton stopped at the North Pole “for an important bilateral meeting with a well-known international figure.”Crowley declined to say who the meeting was with, but a senior State Department official told CNN the tete-a-tete was with none other than the leader the North Pole himself, Santa Claus.
Call my a cynic, but I’m going to say that this story is 100% BULLSHIT. There is no way this “meeting” happened! You don’t even have photos of this meeting with this “well-known international figure.”
It’s like you didn’t even ask any follow-up questions whatsoever. For example” “what was Santa’s reaction to Mrs. Clinton’s wish list for the coming year” or “does Santa, a mystical Christian holiday figure, take a stand on a final political resolution in Jerusalem, a city deemed holy by three major religions and the place of much religiously-fueled bloodshed through the centuries?”
Shame on you CNN. Often your network has been the last bastion of cable news editorial standards. But now I fear CNN stands for Copious Nonsense Network.
Sad.
I expect an unequivocal correction within 24 hours.
Love,
Evan
