Mar 10, 2007 0
balls
i’ve been having huge problems with the ‘news’ lately. the other day i was watching tv at 11pm, which is the standard hour for the news on canadian tv, global, cbc, citytv and ctv being the major networks that get airplay. anyway, i don’t usually watch any of them as i’m a big fan of channel surfing first through all the sports channels (sportsnet, tsn and the score) then through all the pop culture channels (muchmusic, muchmoremusic, cartoon, comedy, mtv), but i decided to settle on citytv. i sat through a half an hour, the initial ten minutes of which was devoted to showing how a slice of salami (simulating human flesh, of course?) froze in sub-zero temperatures followed by how a bottle of water similarly froze, and the remaining twenty minutes, highlighted various worldly events, such as a dog falling through ice in colorado being alloted as much airtime as an earthquake in sumatra that killed hundreds of people. i promise you there is no exaggeration here: water freezing in -15C weather and a golden retriever falling through ice … this was the news.
here’s another example of news in print:
the exercise craze that crippled a generation
again, a news article on the topic of “health” guided by the flimsiest of anecdotal evidence trying to pass off as an actual report. what i wonder is whether this poor excuse for news is a result of the blogging phenomenon and the inherent lessening of journalistic standards or whether it’s always existed and has only become more obvious now that non-professionals are doing it too.
