Monday, June 29, 2009

Other: Dear CNN.com

Dear CNN.com,

Could you please let me know when I'll be able to go to your site without fear of a dead celebrity's name appearing in one of the top stories? For some completely inexplicable reason, I simply wonder why, with the first coup in Central America in decades, the residual debris from the Iranian elections, the exodus of American troops from Iraq, the planned increase in numbers of American troops in Afghanistan, continued concern over the fate of the economy, what seems like a spate of recent airplane crashes, not to mention more localized concerns, like why the state of California is trying to resume costly criminal executions when it can't even afford to pay its own teachers the monkey spit they usually get, your website seems to find it more important to trace the life of a person whose death would really, if people were sane and had any sense of perspective, affect only his or her family and close friends. So, thanks so much for feeding the monster of celebrity obsession for people who don't seem to know that the exit of someone who didn't even live on the same planet as the rest of us really isn't going to change anyone's life unless they are so focused on something that has nothing to do with them that they miss what really does matter in their lives. And thanks so much for making it impossible for people who realize there's an actual planet out there which is still spinning in the exact same direction and at the same speed as it was before to find actual news that really speaks about the present and future of that planet.

Seriously, either step up to the plate and focus on some real, pertinent news, or just be honest with yourselves and change the name to "Celebrity News Network."

Sincerely,
Karen

P.S. It's not like most of you other news outlets are any better, so you can just shut up, too. Seriously, is there a Michael-Jackson-free news source where I can find out what's actually happening in the world right now?

2 comments:

Heather Sherman said...

Probably not. Even The Economist seems to have a link. At least it's in a small font . . .

Karen said...

Ugh. Although it seems to be on their "most commented on" list. Bad Economist readers, bad!

This really is one of those situations where, if people pretended like it wasn't there, it really would go away. If people didn't click on those links, maybe the news sources would move on.

And that's all I have to say about it.

(I admit, I did read the article about Jackson's scheduled public viewing just because I wanted to make sure I would be nowhere near the place at the time. I recommend people stay off the roads between Los Angeles and Santa Maria Friday morning!)

I think I'll go crawl back under a rock for awhile. Well, under Spoon. He's very large and sedentary.

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