I'MMA LET YOU FINISH

Little Timmy fallen down the well. . .


CNN? Thought it got cancelled.


Man bites dog, Home Land security Heighten. Stayed tuned for this developing story.


GravatarShe did inform hubby-to-be.

She phoned and said, "I've been kidnapped."


GravatarWhile we're making fun of CNN, they're still leading off with this non-story.


GravatarI keep missing all thses dramas.What am I doing wrong?


GravatarAs I noted a couple of weeks ago, it has turned into a local LA-type station. Pathetic, indeed....


GravatarMy in-laws live in Norcross, outside the ATL. Their dramatic story of how they took down the basketball goal next to the house is the lead story for Anderson Cooper 360.


GravatarI can't believe what CNN has become. They've sunk to Faux News level.


GravatarYoung attractive white woman vicimized/in distress always leads on CNN.


GravatarMaenwhile, scientists have discovered the "smoking gun" on man's involvement in global warming/climate change. But you wouldn't know it watching CNN....


GravatarNot MSNBC too! AHAHAHHHHAHAHH!
Make it stop!
oh, wait, here's the remote. problem solved.


Gravatar"I keep missing all thses dramas.What am I doing wrong?
mena"

You blinked.


GravatarWhan I first turned on CNN this morning after reading Rising Hegemon, the anchor specifically said that according to their website, this was the number one story and so they would be sticking with it.

News coverage determined by hit counters, what bullshit.


GravatarBombard CNN with emails.


GravatarWere the kidnappers Mexican?!


GravatarThere is a channel on my local cable system that broadcasts the news shows of other countries, 1/2 hour from France, Germany, etc. even the news from Iceland and Somalia (how many TVs are there in Somalia?)
I obtain more real information from that channel than from all of the US' cable news channels combined. AND I CAN'T UNDERSTAND ANY OF THE OTHER LANGUAGES!!!


GravatarAccording to CNN, no charges will be filed in New Mexico or in Georgia.

They did mention that the wedding will be "bigger than the wedding of Prince Charles with 600 + guests".

So, the parents will have to file bankruptcy, before new laws kick in.

She will go on to film a movie on her flight from an abusive fiance.

And...how did she pay for her bus trips and stay since she left home with her track suit and a pair of new balance shoes.

Can we get Kobe Bryant involved?

This is building to be the story of the month.


GravatarI blame Ted Turner.

It is clearly true that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

A 24-hour cable news channel seemed like such a good idea.

"I had not thought death had undone so many."


GravatarThis is one of the funniest stories I've heard in a good while. On several levels. Woman flips out, cuts her hair, and high tails it to Vegas on a freaking bus.

Cable news pisses its figurative pants over the latest human-interest-story-as-national-news, spends days insinuating that the prospective groom is hiding something (he seems too calm)and, after the truth comes out, looks completely stupid.

Except that cable news continues to report the story as a big deal, looking even stupider.

Anyone care to speculate:

- whether or not charges get filed against the woman

- the couple ever get married????


GravatarIf somebody killed Atrios, would that make CNN?


GravatarMore important to me is the case of the missing bloggers over at First-Draft. There has been nary a peep out of Holden, Athenae, or Tena since yesterday. Has Holden submitted to a polygraph yet?


GravatarThis morning I turn on an old Star Trek episode over watching "The most trusted name in news." And I must say that I probably learned more about life watching the Star Trek episode than I ever could watching an hour of CNN....


Gravatarposted down below,but must be repeated for emphasis,Bill Gates msgop sponsor and overall entrepreneurEmperor:

Microsoft: The Cash Machine
Motley Fool - 18 hours ago
By WD Crotty. Software giant Microsoft (NYSE: MSFT) is a classic cash machine (or, if you're from the Midwest, a cash cow). Go back 15 years (you can go back further, but I didn't) and you'll see that revenue and earnings increased every year. ...
Microsoft Third-Quarter Profits Double Yahoo News
Microsoft Shares Up on Strong 3Q Profit
rolling in do re mi!!!


Gravatarwe better hope CNN draws the line at 'cats up trees'-- there could be some real investigative journalism about the *real* reason Atrios' cats have been denied the internets spotlight.

"And here to help us sort it all out on Wolf Blitzer Reports, let me welcome Ted Smith and- which name are you using today, Rob? or Hunter J Thompson..."


GravatarThank gopod i have no idea WTF you're on about.


GravatarNews coverage determined by hit counters, what bullshit.

If that's the case on blogs, too, First Draft will soon be nothing but pictures of Democrats and me saying "fuck" a lot.

A.


GravatarI found most amusing that when the she was found CNN had the story but CNN HLN was still talking about her disapperance at least 30 mintutes after. As well as one of the Saturday Morning News Shows talking about her still being missing at 8am eastern time.


GravatarI thought I was experiencing this in isolation. Glad to see others are too...
CNN in their bound to fail effort to catch up with FOX has become a HUGE JOKE!!!


GravatarThe larger question:

All national opinion polls reflect that there is a majority of people who are disillusioned with the maladministration. The spread between them is so small as to be unworthy of commentary on the differences.

That, friends, means there is a market for truthful reportage. That means people will be drawn to watching that kind of coverage and advertising can be sold on the backs of those viewers.

Why the disconnect on that in the cable TV business. Even Clear Channel has accepted the realities.

Why not cable news?

Oh, and "they are whores" is not an acceptable answer: whore go where the money is.


GravatarThere's a missing dog sign taped to the telephone pole in my neighborhood. Should I call CNN?


GravatarZombiebbirdhouse - Athenae is busy. Holden doesn't post on the weekends as a rule.

I just got online.

Sorry we haven't updated since late yesterday.


GravatarCar chases, missing young white women, cats up trees...

CAT!?!?!

Oh, poor little pussycat... hang on, pussycat, we're comin' to getcha!


GravatarAtrios - stop hurting yourself by watching CNN. When there's a rock in you shoe, remove the shoe, empty the rock, and put the shoe back on. Don't keep walking with the rock in your shoe! Don't keep watching CNN, MSNBC, Fox BS, etc, etc.


GravatarWasn't this already a movie starring Claudette Colbert?


GravatarDo these dimbulbs really think that now that she's been *found* and explanations given, anyone cares?

How would you like to continue to be placed in the national spotlight after such a traumatic and, eventually, embarrassing ending? Why can't CNN allow this family to get back some semblance of normalcy?

Privacy? Decency? Respect? What's that?


GravatarDuncan, above his obvious skills has one more talent that is interesting.

He can find the best venting news for a thread. He should charge for the therapy sessions he provides here.


GravatarI never even learned about cnn's mind fucking new story of the week till it was on atrios!

People, don't watch cnn! I get most of my news from bbc news. See, the front page of there website has NO mention of this story at all. Thank god. At least some journalists still have some dignity.


GravatarTime Warner management could care less

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=TWX&t=5y

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=twx


GravatarFake Athenae - right on, baby!


Gravatar"There's a missing dog sign taped to the telephone pole in my neighborhood. Should I call CNN?
Jefe"

Of course.


Gravatarpie - be fair. Now that they can't torment Mrs. Schiavo, they have to find another live woman to abuse.


Gravatar I must say that I probably learned more about life watching the Star Trek episode than I ever could watching an hour of CNN....

Depends on which one... "A Taste of Armageddon" or "Errand of Mercy," probably yes. "Gamesters of Triskelion" or "The Omega Glory," probably not..


GravatarWere the kidnappers Mexican?! - "Lou Dobbs"

No. But dey might haff been. Dot is vy ve must close de borders.


GravatarOh, thank Jesus!!! Both Athenae and Tena are alive and well. I didn't really suspect Holden of foul play, but it's obviously never too soon to begin speculating

...and I love happy democat photos almost as much as when you say Fuck, Athenae.


Gravatar"There's a missing dog sign taped to the telephone pole in my neighborhood. Should I call CNN?
Jefe"


I can go one better: we have a FOUND DOG sign on a telephone pole by the Fletcher General Store!


Gravatarfox isn't cnn's rival anymore, the oxygen channel is. look at the friggin anchors they are hiring as newsreaders. before i will any longer give credence to cnn reporting, i want a live on air test -- an untitled map of the united states and of the middle east. name the countries. i bet they couldn't do it.

let me also point out that yesterday's release by the pentagon of the photos of the dead was accomplished by Ralph Beigleither -- a former CNN reporter, fired, and now a professor. HE filed and foia request. Did anybody (or has anyone ever) at CNN think to file a foia request. Talking to you Jamie McIntyre, Babs Starr, hell, even Dana Bash and the golden boy, John King.


GravatarPoll

Q:
Mexicans are swarming over the US border in search of white brides.

A:
1. Agree
2. Pretty Much
3. I seen that on TV
4. Yes


GravatarCitizens. Go to your door and look for the criminal.

I'm not a Ray Bradbury fan but he did get quite a bit right in that book. They just weren't able to do it here under the old broadcast rules overthrown in the Reagan years.

TV isn't a tool to enlighten or educate or even inform. If you have basic cable it isn't even a tool to entertain. It's a vehicle for control and selling. They sell "the viewers" to the companies who brainwash the suckers into buying their trash and voting for their oligarchs.

Again, not anything we didn't know but unless you keep talking about it they'll change the subject to the next C list hollywood murder suspect.


Gravatardave - I have to respectfully disagree. I would wager 10,000 quatloos that "Gamesters" would teach us all a thing or two about the triumph of the human spirit.


Gravatar"And here to help us sort it all out on Wolf Blitzer Reports, let me welcome Ted Smith and- which name are you using today, Rob? or Hunter J Thompson..."

heh... heh...heh...

You funny, Nick.


GravatarThere's a missing dog sign taped to the telephone pole in my neighborhood. Should I call CNN?

They'd love to hear from you!

If you can send a photo of the dog along with the tip, that's even better!


GravatarThe great thing about living in Fairfax is having an TV alternative to media borg-
http://www.mhznetworks.org/sched...hz- schedule.php


GravatarAnd the national media slides a little bit lower. Proof positive that there really is no bottom and the depths of human stupidity are boundless.


GravatarWasn't this already a movie starring Claudette Colbert?
Footloose


Yes!

But who is Clark Gable?


GravatarActually the real alien news is still sex starved humanoids from other galaxies coming here to get lucky. Sex must be more unlikely than we'd thought.
Maybe we should just turn over all of the right-wing robo blonds and tell them to leave normal people alone.


GravatarI have a suspicious neighbor.


GravatarCan we have a fuff content meter? oh its all fluff you say.....never mind


GravatarThey say don't get married in haste.
You should have a little foretaste.
She's not the first bride
To look on the downside.
It's hell to feel fucking unchased.


Gravatarfox isn't cnn's rival anymore, the oxygen channel is.

Yes. Mentioned this in lower thread ... My sister was telling me last night that Oxygen has AN. ENTIRE. SHOW. devoted to these "missing bride" type stories. Fuck off, Geraldine Laybourne.


GravatarI have yet to turn on the tv this morning. It sounds too awful to bear.


GravatarI would wager 10,000 quatloos that "Gamesters" would teach us all a thing or two about the triumph of the human spirit.

It certainly tells us something about the triumph of 22nd century brassiere technology over gravity...


GravatarMy sister was telling me last night that Oxygen has AN. ENTIRE. SHOW. devoted to these "missing bride" type stories.

Ah, the First Network For Women. So, you women types out there in Atrios land? You like these stories?


GravatarThank you Dave, once more for those who did not get it the first time -
CNN Feedback


GravatarOh, is Ted still being a pest? You know, if no one else is going to do it I'm going to try to get a copy of his divorce book and post it complete with fisking based on the anti-women posts he's done here.

It would be a far far better thing than.....


GravatarI agree. This is just nuts that everyone's making a big deal that she travelled without her license, etc.

But I do fault her for not being upfront with her husband to be and saying "I'm not ready". What kind of relationship can they have if she can't trust him to understand if she gets a little freaked out.

EVEN WORSE, she calls the police and feeds them the cockamanie story that she was kidnapped, wasting money and resources as everyone looked for her. How many other crimes went uninvestigated and ignored as people devoted their time to her.

And worst of all, for me personally, is that she vanishes, leaving her fiance to become suspect no. 1. She really should have thought about how this man that she professes to love would be treated by the police and media, who lately, seem intent on immediately pointing a finger of blame at the husband.

It's sad that it happened, and I'm sorry she had a nervous breakdown, but I don't feel much sympathy for her, and what she put everyone through.


GravatarI never even learned about cnn's mind fucking new story of the week till it was on atrios!

People, don't watch cnn! I get most of my news from bbc news. See, the front page of there website has NO mention of this story at all. Thank god. At least some journalists still have some dignity.


GravatarNTodd, I just found out the particulars of this story after my sister-in-law called me this morning to tell me the woman was found. I hadn't really been interested enough to find out about her, because, frankly, I don't care. Nor did I care about Scott Peterson or Michael Jackson. These stories hightlight our faults and weaknesses, and nothing good ever comes out of the reporting. It's *news* in its lowest form, and I'd rather tune it out.


GravatarEPTropy-TV isn't a tool to enlighten or educate or even inform.

Check this:

You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don't need you
Don't go for help . . . no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold

I may be vile and pernicious
But you can't look away
I make you think I'm delicious
With the stuff that I say
I'm the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I'm the slime oozin' out
From your TV set


I'm the Slime - Frank Zappa (1973)

Seems Frank was quite prescient, eh?


Gravatardave - Star Trek was so prescient. Check out the world's most advanced bra!


GravatarWasn't this already a movie starring Claudette Colbert?
Footloose

Yes!

But who is Clark Gable?
NYMary | Email | Homepage

jimmy-jeff? oops wrong hair color. but he is so versatile


GravatarAdmittedly, there IS some interest in a freak-out of this sort. But, it's all out of proportion.

I also feel really bad for the guy -- not just because the situation is embarassing but because he was presented as some sort of "Scott Peterson Sequel" for an entire day.

That ain't what Warhol meant by the 15 minutes of fame.


Gravatari wonder how many non-white, non-middle-class, non-attractive women actually have gone missing in the last week??


Gravatarpie - what, you don't TIVO this stuff?!


GravatarObviously she's guilty.

Guilty of not watching enough of the teevee to know what hysteria she was causing across the county while she played the slots in Vegas...

Bad white girl! Bad!

Maybe she'll find a new husband on Hannidate.


GravatarWill they never learn? A couple of years ago CNN et al. went national when a couple of college kids from Boston went "missing," parents were boo-hooing all over the cable stations for a goddamn week. The missing pair turned up on a beach in Florida, they'd been screwing their brains out oblivious to the publicity...


GravatarTurn CNN off and get NWI, the Canadian channel for US news. Its basically the CBC. A lot better than anything produced in Bushistan.


GravatarI thought I was experiencing this in isolation. Glad to see others are too...
CNN in their bound to fail effort to catch up with FOX has become a HUGE JOKE!!!


Gravatary'know i used to watch cnn while eating breakfast in order to catch up on the news. lately i haven't bothered.
cnn simply isn't worth watching anymore.

little real news! plus shitheads like bill hemmer putting the slant to everything. i gave that little fuck the benefit of the doubt-but he has revealed himself to be a republican operative.
cnn? an open sewer.


GravatarI'm jumping on a plane momentarily to go to Spain for a week and a half.

I can't wait to see Spanish coverage of this story. I'll bet they're beside themselves.


GravatarThe junk food of news.


GravatarCNN has now become 'PNC' the Pleasantville News Channel.


MYOB'
.


GravatarThat ain't what Warhol meant by the 15 minutes of fame.
Mike M.
==

Actually, I think it's exactly what warhol was talking about.


Gravatar"there could be some real investigative journalism about the *real* reason Atrios' cats have been denied the internets spotlight."

Yes, Atrios 'claims' the camera and a USB port were damaged, but that sounds very suspicous to me. In fact, in 9 outta 10 cat picture disapperances, the adult male of the household is ultimately culpable.

We'll need to run some presumptive forensic tests on this so-called 'cat piss', make sure that so called 'claw marks' on the lens did in fact originate from a cat, etc. ( I mean really, cats scratching a glass camera lens?? What they got, diamond claws?) It all sounds very, very unlikely to me.


GravatarBut Atrios, it was strength of faith and PRAYER that brought the poor wayward lamb home!

Atrios, why do you hate Amurka?


Gravatarfox isn't cnn's rival anymore, the oxygen channel is.

That must explain that crazy Nancy Grace lady. The first time I saw her on tv, I got scared. It was like I was picking up some lost airwave transmission from Memphis circa 1982. Then I realized it was CNN.

Then I got into my crawl space and cried.


GravatarTED TURNER: There's no proof that that woman is murdered, or even that she's dead...It's not our function to report the gossip of housewives. If we were interested in that kind of thing, Mr. Klein, we could fill the paper twice over daily.

JONATHAN KLEIN: Mr. Turner, that's the kind of thing we are going to be interested in, from now on.


GravatarDammit.

Actually, I think it's exactly what warhol was talking about.

Because no one outside of here, including cnn, will remember thses names a month from now.


GravatarIt is pretty fucking sad when of the three "news" channels: CNN, Fox, and MSNBC, the only one not talking about the AWOL Bride-To-Be is Fox.

We have truly hit bottom...I hope.


GravatarIs it possible that the reason this is getting coverage is that it's in Georgia, not far from Atlanta?

But in either case all this coverage does is humiliate the dumped bride. Nice going CNN! You've emasculated the poor guy!


..Now they have the pastor being quoted. He's an expert.


MYOB'
.


Gravatar
That, friends, means there is a market for truthful reportage. That means people will be drawn to watching that kind of coverage and advertising can be sold on the backs of those viewers.

Why the disconnect on that in the cable TV business. Even Clear Channel has accepted the realities.

Why not cable news?

Oh, and "they are whores" is not an acceptable answer: whore go where the money is.
T_Scheisskopf


T, this is something that has puzzled me for a while. I keep thinking that if SOMEOME, some real entrepreneur would step us and start a cable network that did what CNN did in the Turner days, they would be a financal success. The ratings for the cable news channels suck, and only seem to serve the most powerful. Or Bush would get the same level of scrutinty as Clinton did.
It's about power and control.


GravatarAtrios on suicide watch.
Pls dont kill yourself. Turn off the TV and put some clasical music on, as I am doing now.


GravatarAccording to CNN, no charges will be filed in New Mexico or in Georgia.

No charges? Charges?

What kind of CHARGES? Attempted not being married? Felony busriding? Mopery?

Chuy.


Gravatari hope the groom runs off.


Gravatarjdw - Occam's Razor. I think Atrios' cats ran away because they were sick of the spotlight. Unlike Sam...


Gravatarreport the gossip of housewives


Well, it's clearly the runaway hit of the year on ABC!


Gravatari wonder how many non-white, non-middle-class, non-attractive women actually have gone missing in the last week??

And I wonder now CNN would cover this "story" if it was the groom who had disappeared?

Thoughts?


GravatarThe missing pair turned up on a beach in Florida, they'd been screwing their brains out oblivious to the publicity...

One night surfing around the cable channels I saw a comedian on BET doing a routine about a guy who had called in "sick" from his job at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

"Bein' a brother," the comedian said, "he spent all day playin' Nintendo and didn't watch no TV."

And showed up for work, excuse in hand, the next day. Very surprised.

It was a pretty funny routine. Wish I could remember who it was.


GravatarFrank Zappa knew about media. No doubt. My knowlege of his work drops off sharply at my brother's wedding, when he took all of his records with him. TPT introduced me to An Evening With Wildman Fischer which sort of presages all of the cabloids.


GravatarIn all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong.
John Kenneth Galbraith


GravatarHey thanks Billy B for the Zappa lyrics.


GravatarIs she the one who was kidnapped by Robert Blake or the one who was murdered by Michael Jackson?

Or was that Paula Abdul?

I'm so busy trying to have, you know, an actual life that I have trouble keeping them all straight.



Will this be on the final exam?


GravatarHow many requests for missing dog stories would it take to get CNN to air them?

This is a serious question.


GravatarUnder noraml circumstances this would have warranted maybe 1, perhaps 2-3 minutes of coverage?


Aren't we fighting a war right now?

Time to change the channel.
If I'm going to be seeing this shit on CNN or MSNBC then I'll stick to Fox News where at least I know I'm being lied to rather than being pandered to.

MYOB'
.


Gravatarno one outside of here, including cnn, will remember thses names a month from now.

Hell, I don't know the names now! All I know is Runaway Bride, Poor Schmuck, etc...


GravatarUpcoming Reality Show: "Who Wants to Marry a Missing Bride to Be?"


GravatarWhat kind of CHARGES? Attempted not being married? Felony busriding? Mopery?

Chuy.
GWPDA, Irate Scholar

Mopery provided the first belly laugh of the day. It sounds so much like a law that will be passed sometime during the Bush dynasty. It will be what the crime of not smiling to a social superior will be called. The social superior will have license to kill the offending pesant on sight.


GravatarNews coverage determined by hit counters, what bullshit.
Zombiebirdhouse


It's official. The Hit Parade has risen, phoenix-like and is now calling itself CNN.

You know, the Hit Parade was were Frankie Sinatra got his start.


GravatarTerri Schiavo, the Croaked Pope and the Runaway Bride should set all of you cynics straight who thought that CNN would waste all of its new coverage on Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson.

Eat your words, dogs.


Gravatari wonder how many non-white, non-middle-class, non-attractive women actually have gone missing in the last week??


Evidently nobody has mentioned the 247 women murdered near Ciudad Juarez. No blondes however.


GravatarN: Sam is too cool for school. Beautiful pic.

"Pls dont kill yourself. Turn off the TV and put some clasical music on, as I am doing now."

The wife is gone and I'm cranking Roger Waters In the Flesh at extreme volume and the subwoofer is making the lights blink and windows rattle and the cats are hiding and I'm giggling like a schoolgirl. Yeah baby.


GravatarStar Trek was so prescient.

Of course, here's the ultimate triumph.

Fuck Zefram Cochran - God bless Bill Theiss!
Homepage | 04.30.05 - 12:23 pm | #


GravatarForget the damn dogs.

Missing Ferrets. Why has this become a national calamity. How does this ties into the Gannon/Guckert scandal.

We want to know CNN!


GravatarHell, I don't know the names now! All I know is Runaway Bride, Poor Schmuck, etc...

And the family is happy to hear that. I read an AP story that said that once the real story came out, everyone went in the house and drew the blinds and probably tried to crawl into a very tiny hole somewhere.


GravatarStar Trek was so prescient.

Of course, here's the ultimate triumph.

Fuck Zefram Cochran - God bless Bill Theiss!


GravatarOops - guess it didna stoop!


GravatarWhat kind of CHARGES? Attempted not being married? Felony busriding? Mopery?

There's probably some statute out there about falsely reporting a felony (kidnapping).

She should be charged.


GravatarWould somebody ask Ted Turner to please buy back CNN?


Gravatardave - are those things real?


GravatarThere's probably some statute out there about falsely reporting a felony (kidnapping).

She should be charged.


Whatever happpened to the coed in Madison who did the same thing?


GravatarIn other news: my squirrels are FAT this year.


GravatarRIL - did the Bride actually report a kidnapping?


GravatarThere's a John Wayne western movie on AMC right now.
"She Wore A Yellow Ribbon"

"Zoolander" comes on TBS in another 20 minutes. Time enough for a bathroom break, making a sandwich, and sitting down to watch.

"Good Will Hunting" comes on A&E at the same time. I like that movie. I'll watch that instead.

Then go mow the lawn.

MYOB'
.


GravatarRes - the day the Albuquerque police department has the time and interest to prosecute even Aggravated Mopery is the day there are no more drunken cowboys, paranoid New Yorkers or loco college students trashing the Frontier on Central. Making CNN look stupid and defaulting, briefly, on ice sculptures doesn't meet the threshhold.


GravatarNTodd ... According to the NYT she did.


GravatarA funny from drudge:
Frank Rich Sunday: Is Bill Frist the new Barbra Streisand?...

No link yet.


GravatarIt is bad when Fox is the only one not covering the useless news. During the popeapalooza, Fox was the only one carrying other news. What is this world coming to when I have to watch Fox to get news? (or even pseudonews)


Gravatarmorning, freethinkers.

jumping in, i couldn't resist responding to this one:

Oh, and "they are whores" is not an acceptable answer: whores go where the money is.
T_Scheisskopf | Email | Homepage | 04.30.05 - 11:58 am | #


uh huh. it's not just about pure capitalist profit, at least in the short/medium term. there's a reason why they suck so bad, CNN and the rest of them. atrios has a very strong brain to stay real while viewing it, many are not so able.

and OT- ha ha! guess who was at the only North American show of N'zter Ebb last night? that's right kids, in her black lettered "evildoer" wifebeater tee. there's nothing more fun than dancing well in a mosh pit of skinheads, unabashedly ready to physically defend one's freedom of speech. and Ebb is as good as they ever were, which shocked me. i guess some bands do age well.


GravatarThere's probably some statute out there about falsely reporting a felony (kidnapping).


Thanks to Atrios I am now up on all the facts and I was thinking same thing cos ice fishermen who stupidly go out on risky ice get charged to rescue their dumb asses. This chick apparently was living with the dude and still conceives a gigantic wedding and thinks, Aha! I've got it!
And she's a Nurse????


GravatarOh, mena, do tell! I love squirrels. Love LOVE LOVE them.

Have you ever seen the Tufty the Traffic Safety Squirrel via Scary Squirrel World?


GravatarSeriously. Ten more dead today as insurgents try to disrupt the new government which has Chalabi as a deputy minister.

How long can this go on before we have to do something? Seriously!

Is Chalabi actually gonna do anything about the fighting? We now know that the new government is corrupt--there's simply no doubt. Why are we there?

Our troops are in circle-the-wagons mode (force-protect) just trying and failing to keep themselves safe.

What's going on over there right now is serious and deadly and escalating.

Support the troops; shoot CNN.


GravatarBTW, here's a great quote from Star Trek costume designer Bill Theiss that perfectly encapsulates the inner workings of the creative process:

"As for where I get my ideas from... well, I don't get them from my dreams or anything. Mainly, I get them from fabric that I see that's available."

It ain't rocket science, kids!


GravatarRIL - ah, yes, I actually wasted a few valuable femtoseconds reading the story. Now I know too much.


GravatarReal question - Why does anyone with a computer still watch teeevee for news?


GravatarWhile I agree with those who say that the simple solution is not watching CNN (I, too, had never heard of this story until Atrios started reporting on it), the heart of the matter -- and the reason that it causes our gracious host such pain -- is that CNN will continue to be treated as "the most trusted name in news" and be given the corresponding deference in this country. And that, of course, contributes to the public disaster of misinformed-ness (or underinformed-ness) that is plaguing this country. So, unfortunately, it isn't enough for us here to stop watching CNN; and I myself consider it one of Atrios's great services that he torments himself and critiques it here ...

On the plus side, my little side trip over to CNN.com to read about this spectacular non-story did provide an unexpected link to something very interesting:

Mario Cuomo talks about the tyranny of the majority.

Where have you been Mario?


GravatarGWPDA ... I don't care if she was moping. But she falsely reported a crime. That is just stupid and waste of police resources. Kidnapping is a serious crime. She should be charged. They're probably not charging her because she's a pretty white woman. YOu can be that if she wasn't, she'd be charged (provided, of course, that there's a statute).

That doesn't mean I think CNN should be covering her stupid story. Ten people are probably going to bail on their weddings today. WHo gives a damn?


Gravatarwhere's osama?
http://tinyurl.com/bxa9z


GravatarLord, what I wouldn't give for some real news.

BTW,
MoDo slams BushCo HARD today. Here's a small sample:

Ahmad Chalabi - convicted embezzler in Jordan, suspected Iranian spy, double crosser of America, purveyor of phony war instigating intelligence - is the new Iriqi oil minister.


GravatarIIRC, the Madison woman pled guilty to filing a false report and because of mental health issues she got a pretty light sentence. Community service and therapy, maybe?


GravatarI'm sticky with TCM and Gary Cooper, super duper, this morning. He's going to buy a school teacher!

So that was a "no thanks" on the sweet potato hash browns I'm cooking up? Hmmm, anyone? Class, anyone?


GravatarWhan I first turned on CNN this morning after reading Rising Hegemon, the anchor specifically said that according to their website, this was the number one story and so they would be sticking with it.

News coverage determined by hit counters, what bullshit.


"You're making us do this! It's all your fault!"


GravatarYou know, I hope that CNN gets their interview:

CNN: "So tell us, what was going through your mind?"

Run Away Bride: "What the F*** is wrong with you people? Stop Hurting America. Start reporting the news. You there, what is the national debt? How much of that is because of the Bush Tax cuts? And you, with the hair, can you explain peak oil? Camera Man - have you been to Fallujah? Have any of you F***s been to Fallujah lately? Have any of you seen one second of video from Fallujah from the last month? Get away from me."

Say -- maybe this is a way to get the news on the news! All you need is a well, or an abandoned mine shaft, and a cell phone with CNN on the speed dial....


Gravatardave - thanks for that insight. I'm going to change careers yet again!


GravatarBut she falsely reported a crime.
To whom? Did she?

Pfui.


GravatarFrom the sound of her relatives, I think she did the right thing to bail.


GravatarI want to know how CNN would cover the story if the GROOM had split?

Bet you it would have been pitched as "The bride had a CAREER. SHe was very INDEPENDENT. She was not FEMININE. He got cold feet."


GravatarOK. The sandwich's made. Wiating till the bottom of the hour. Kids are upstairs playing. Son is practicing throwing pitches into his batter's box setup. The wife's out recruiting talent.

And the missing bride's pitcure makes me realize that CNN has broken a severe rule. YOU DON'T GIVE COVERAGE TO UGLY WOMEN!

MYOB'
.


Gravatar...are those things real?

Oh, yeah! Check out Justman and Heath's book on the making of Star Trek for an interview with Ms. Jackson on how they got Shatner all hot and bothered...


GravatarSo that was a "no thanks" on the sweet potato hash browns I'm cooking up? Hmmm, anyone? Class, anyone?
san antone rose


Sorry I missed that. I'm definitely in!


GravatarIt's all so convenient: Runaway Bride is the title, the subtext is well-known. Where is the title for car bombs and carnage? Seven Bombs for Seven Soldiers?

Fox, CNN, MSNBC, it's like Terri Schiavo except that the Pope blew her entirely off the tube.


GravatarWhat can I say? Stop watching CNN!!! Worked for me. I don't give FF about what's on it.


GravatarIt's all very simple: don't *watch* CNN or any of the others. Just don't. Turn off the fucking TV. It takes a couple of months to get used to the cold screen, but you will.

Turn off the fucking TV. And THEN stop reading blogs.

Go o-u-t-s-i-d-e and play.

God bless the world.


Gravatardave, makes you wonder how "The Queen of Outer Space" (195 could have gotten it so tragically wrong, much to the eternal trauma of so many of that era's he men. It's odd but I always have to remind myself that it wasn't Zsa Zsa who was the Queen of Venus abducting he-men spacemen to be used as she sees fit.

The Invasion of the Bee Girls has probably given many boy-men the heebie jeebies too.


Gravatar"News coverage determined by hit counters, what bullshit."


I'm going to their website every morning and hitting on the Iraq war coverage, and anything that makes people question the Bush agenda.


MYOB'
.


GravatarHudson - What's going on over there right now is serious and deadly and escalating.

I read Juan Cole a little while ago - it's very bad. Car bombs going off everywhere in Iraq.


GravatarMaybe I am reading between the lines incorrectly, but I sure believe that Jennifer was a victim of the Karl Rove Evangelican, Fundie movement. Notice that the wedding was to have 600 guests, and 14 bridesmaids and ushers. The wedding was taking place in the Husband-to-be's church, by the Husband-to-be's minister. The choice of church, is customarily the Bride's. When they first announced that she was safe, he gave an "overly" religious statement of gratitude. Then the news hits, that she was a run-away bride. Dollars to Donuts, she was being smothered by an Evangelical, and she knew she would be buried by it, if she went through with the wedding.


Gravatar1958, those damned smily faces always showing up when I type 8 and a ).


GravatarCNN is setting up a camera on my smoke stack right now. If you see white smoke, that means I've been re-kidnapped by Mexican border-jumpers. Black smoke means I've eloped with manwhore JimmyJeff Gannon! Hurrah!

Don't forget to tune in!


GravatarSan Antone - other than that the quirrels are huge - well that's about it. But soon I should be seeing babies and I will Report. Promise.

Also, I think we still have something going on over in the mideast or somwhere.


Gravatarsomeone upthread mentioned that a real cablenews channel would be succesfull.
hell yes!

i am waiting for someone to do this!
or buy up cnn, sack most everyone that works there-i am looking at you bill hemmer, and return that network to it's original purpose-news reporting.


GravatarMeanwhile, back in Iraq:

Bombers killed six people and wounded at least 29 others in Baghdad on Saturday, officials said.

The three strikes follow a day of bombings in Iraq, most of them in Baghdad, where 12 bombs went off in eight parts of the capital within a matter of hours, killing 23 Iraqi security troops and at least one civilian, authorities said.

In the first strike Saturday, a bomber attacked a joint Iraqi-U.S. military convoy near a police station in eastern Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding 16 others, emergency police said.

Later, a suicide car bomb exploded outside the headquarters of a Sunni political group in western Baghdad, emergency police said. The explosion killed two guards and wounded eight other people.

In the early evening, a car bomb killed two civilians and wounded five other people on a major highway in eastern Baghdad when it targeted and missed a U.S. military convoy, police said.

As the violence continued, leaders from nations bordering Iraq met in Istanbul to discuss border security and other issues. Iraq's neighbors are concerned that instability from the war could spill across borders and spur regional discord. (Full story)

Also Saturday, the U.S. military announced the deaths of four U.S. soldiers who were killed by a roadside bomb Thursday near Tal Afar in northern Iraq. Two other soldiers were wounded in the attack.

The number of U.S. troops who have died in the Iraq war stands at 1,581, according to the military.


Woo-hoo! 1600, here we come! USA! USA!! USA!!!


Gravatarpeace all .Just 'member , there is a real world out there , and CNN doesn't have any interest in reflecting that , since you could actually experience it by looking out the window , talking to a neighbor or going for a bike ride .

Deviant concepts I know , but strangely exciting too ....


GravatarIf that's the case on blogs, too, First Draft will soon be nothing but pictures of Democrats and me saying "fuck" a lot.

Awwww, fuck. That was funny.


GravatarIt's too bad that a 32-year-old woman was not able to communicate her feelings about the size of her wedding - 14 bridesmaids and 600 people? Yowsa. I can imagine how panicked she must have been. All eyes are on the bride on her wedding day. And in trying to avoid being the center of so much attention, look what she's done to herself!!!

Oh, well. Good luck to her. Eloping might be a better option next time.


Gravatari am waiting for someone to do this!

dan hoppe ... a few months ago, Kos said that "big money" is working on this very thing. I have no idea how long we are going to have to wait, but however long it is, it's too long.

About two years ago, the GUARDIAN U.K. was planning a U.S. edition. They bailed on it for some reason, but I wish they'd revive it.


GravatarCNN has gone SO far down the toilet, it's pathetic!


Gravatarsweet potato hash browns?

That sounds great! I'll take some.


GravatarRun Away Bride: "What the F*** is wrong with you people? Stop Hurting America. Start reporting the news. You there, what is the national debt? How much of that is because of the Bush Tax cuts? And you, with the hair, can you explain peak oil? Camera Man - have you been to Fallujah? Have any of you F***s been to Fallujah lately? Have any of you seen one second of video from Fallujah from the last month? Get away from me."


Frakking brilliant, and right on the mark.


GravatarDollars to Donuts, she was being smothered by an Evangelical, and she knew she would be buried by it, if she went through with the wedding.
Mad as Hell


I was thinking the same thing. She went to Vegas, after all... not exactly the fundie playland.


Gravatarfootloose wrote, "Wasn't this already a movie starring Claudette Colbert?"

It's the source of a song which i often break into, and which almost always baffles those near me.

Young people in looooove are very seldom hungry......


Gravatarsweet potato hash browns


Are there any left?


GravatarTHIS JUST IN TO THE CNN NEWSDESK:

Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning are dating, CNN has learned. Cruise, 42, and Fanning, 11, "have only been dating a couple of weeks," says a friend of Cruise.

The romance was confirmed by the actor's sister -- and publicist -- after he and Fanning were photographed together, hand in hand, in Rome on Wednesday evening.

"She's a really genuine person," says the friend. "She's the real deal."

Cruise split with girlfriend Penelope Cruz last year. He and Nicole Kidman, who have two children, divorced in 2001.

Fanning and actor Haley Joel Osment broke off their engagement in March. The actress, who launched her career with "Father Xmas", appears in the summer action film "War of The Worlds" along with Cruise.

Tonight on Larry King LIVE: Dominick Dunne discusses the incalculable allure of Dakota Fanning.


GravatarThe number of U.S. troops who have died in the Iraq war stands at 1,581, according to the military.

Woo-hoo! 1600, here we come! USA! USA!! USA!!!
dave |


I think Preznit Asshole is REALLY trying to break the "record" of 58,000 killed in VN.


GravatarCNN now plans to become the 24 hour local news channel, nationalizing every local interest story. Car chases, missing young white women, cats up trees, ...

Atrios, I was thinking the same exact thing last night about this. It's like every local story will now traumatize the entire nation. We're a hugely complex nation of 300 million people. There will be no end to these type stories like the woman who stabbed her children "each 200 times with different knives." It's not a sign of 'moral decline' but typical human personal psychological instability that has always been but it's just now, that information is everywhere. We must focus less on the emotional and the major threats facing this country but I don't think it will.

Look everybody, Jacko is on TV!!


GravatarListened to the news on my way to work yesterday. Weren't 50 people killed and 100 wounded in Iraq yesterday?


GravatarI guess I should read Juan Cole first, but in the end it doesn't matter what the hell any of us say or do cos Chalabi is their man. All the crap going down was inevitable cos the Sunni's were losing power pure and simple. Putting Chalabi in has to look like it's the people's choice to safeguard their bases and profits. What the Sunni's hope to gain for extended f/u of country tho remains to be seen.


GravatarI am listening to a Franken re-run and some guy who wrote a book called "South Park Conservatives" is on. Apparently he bashed AAR a lot in his book. His reasons? It is "negative" and there are not enough Republicans represented on the network.

Why does right wing radio get to be negative 24/7 and AAR is "too negative."


GravatarWe must focus less on the emotional and the major threats

We must focus more on the really major and real threats.

I don't think that will happen.


GravatarIT'S A CLOUD!

IT'S A PLANE!!

IT'S....nothing. Oh well.

Look! A kitten in a tree!


GravatarOh, and I'm definitely in for the sweet potato hash browns.


GravatarIf that's the case on blogs, too, First Draft will soon be nothing but pictures of Democrats and me saying "fuck" a lot.

Awwww, fuck. That was funny.
bigvic


Now just add a picture to that, and we'll all come back to it.

pie--

It's too bad that a 32-year-old woman was not able to communicate her feelings about the size of her wedding - 14 bridesmaids and 600 people? Yowsa. I can imagine how panicked she must have been. All eyes are on the bride on her wedding day. And in trying to avoid being the center of so much attention, look what she's done to herself!!!

I understand from CNN these were the two "big" families in Duluth (as if I couldn't guess). Clearly this was meant to be the "social event of the century" in that town.

Clearly the bride wasn't up to it. Clearly there are family dynamics here of which the rest of us have no clue.

I think we should all just leave them alone now. And consider not what drove her to run, but what drives our "news organizations" to obsess over what was simply a missing persons story.


GravatarAs long as the gang at the water cooler wants to talk about runaway brides instead of the deaths of Americans and Iraqis, the dumbing down of America will continue. War fatalities are, like, kind of icky, ya know.


GravatarOh, yeah! Check out Justman and Heath's book on the making of Star Trek for an interview with Ms. Jackson on how they got Shatner all hot and bothered...

And here I thought she was an android...


GravatarUpcoming Reality Show: "Who Wants to Marry a Missing Bride to Be?"

Morning spew! That, and dave quoting from an old Dick van Dyke episode.

good times here.


GravatarIt's not a sign of 'moral decline' but typical human personal psychological instability that has always been but it's just now, that information is everywhere. We must focus less on the emotional and the major threats facing this country but I don't think it will.

You're exactly right. And the news won't change until those who control it are run out of town on a rail or have an epiphany of some sort.


GravatarDavid E - She WOULD be shorter than him.


Everybody - don't you all see what a giant diversion this is? Atrios has effectively gotten us all to talk about something other than his missing kitties!


GravatarIt's the source of a song which i often break into, and which almost always baffles those near me.

The Man on the Flying Trapeze?


GravatarListened to the news on my way to work yesterday. Weren't 50 people killed and 100 wounded in Iraq yesterday?
pie


If none of them were white women jumping on a bus to Vegas to avoid a big Southern wedding in a small town...


...who cares?


GravatarOh, poor little pussycat... hang on, pussycat, we're comin' to getcha!

Rob Petrie as the DJ in the window.

Nice, Dave.


GravatarDating Tom Cruise must be as thrilling as buying a box of Dots out of a movie theatre vending machine. His acting covers the entire emotional range from a.

Ah, yes. Iraq. Do they have transcripts so we can get a word count on how "Iraq" stacks up in a given week as opposed to whatever former celeb is their distraction.


GravatarI don't think that will happen.
Ô¿Ô

'
I don't think so either, and the reason I don't is because "human interest" stories have always been popular. In the first place, they're easy. They're easy to report and easy to understand.

And people are shallow.


GravatarIf CNN had spent 1/10 of the time they devote to these missing bride stories to showing the pictures of Iraqi children that we have killed and maimed that Michael Moore had in F911 we could very well be discusisng the latest initiative from President Kerry right now.


GravatarAtrios, I was thinking the same exact thing last night about this. It's like every local story will now traumatize the entire nation.

The Klein guy who took over CNN has said as much. I saw him on (I think) Charlie Rose when he first took over and he said (paraphrasing), "We want to be the network of great human stories." I don't think this will end any time soon, i.e., for at least a few more ratings periods.


GravatarWell, admittedly, her fiance was something of a worm.


Gravatarfootloose wrote, "Wasn't this already a movie starring Claudette Colbert?"

It Happened One Night (1934). Good ol' Frank Capra. Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable. Great movie.


GravatarI just found a brand new picture of the runaway bridge. Click on my URL


Gravatarsdf - If CNN had spent 1/10 of the time they devote to these missing bride stories to showing the pictures of Iraqi children that we have killed and maimed that Michael Moore had in F911 we could very well be discusisng the latest initiative from President Kerry right now.

So good I wanted to see it again.


Gravatarpie,

Close. 40 dead and AT LEAST 100 wounded. You know, when they say "wounded" it sounds like a cut or a scratch. The sad fact is, folks that escape death in a bombing are usually horribly maimed.

I'm really scared that things have broken bad in Iraq and a horrible civil war is just a few days away. Fuck Bu$h.


GravatarRob Petrie as the DJ in the window.

We have a weiner!

"Ohhh, he's a good man, he cares about the pussycat..."


GravatarIt Happened One Night (1934).

The movie that changed the way American men dressed - they all abandoned their undershirts after Clark Gable took his shirt off in the movie and he wasn't wearing one under it.


GravatarAs long as the gang at the water cooler wants to talk about runaway brides instead of the deaths of Americans and Iraqis, the dumbing down of America will continue. War fatalities are, like, kind of icky, ya know.
donna in evanston 12:44


and as long as the kids of the gang at the watercooler are insulated from the dying and crying, AmericanIdol or the next lost white woman will carry the discursive day...

.


GravatarBTW, 5,000 quatloos says this is the teaser for Nancy Grace Monday:

"Why did the Runaway Bride feel she had to escape? We'll talk with Gloria Allred about battered women next..."


GravatarWeirdly, AOL seems to be reporting the escalating violence in Iraq. In fact, they've had a bunch of not-good-for-the-Boy Prince stories on their headlines latrely.

And nothing about this Georgia woman, at least not on my AIM page.


GravatarI don't think so either, and the reason I don't is because "human interest" stories have always been popular. In the first place, they're easy. They're easy to report and easy to understand.

And people are shallow.


As "sdf" just pointed out, "human interest" being limited to runaway attractive white brides and kittens in trees.

There's no human interest in the grief of soldiers' families or veterans coming home dealing with grievous injuries or closed brain injuries (the most devastating category). Why? Well, because to report on that reality would be "controversial". Why? Because Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson would say so.

I'll retire to Bedlam.....


GravatarSo that's four orders of sweet potato hash browns -- coming up!

A little bit of powdered sugar on top and ummm.


Gravatarwait! you mean that cnn isn't reporting the real story of the week?
PARIS HILTON AND NICOLE RITCHIE ARE NO LONGER FRIENDS!


GravatarTena:

I was opposed to the war. From the start. I'm not a pacifist, but I'm on the waiting list. Next time one gets beaten to death, I'm in.

I'm amazed at how much slack all the pro-war dickheads have cut this administration, such as it is, on its incompentent handling the "war" has gotten.

It's always, "Yeah, well, things didn't work out like we hoped, but we're the good guys, and things will be OK because we're in it for the long haul, and these colors don't run, and let the eagle soar, and on and on and on."

I have been fearing this. I had hoped we could end up with a positive result--something like a representative government that wasn't an atrocity waiting to happen.

I think this violence now is the point of no return. We're at the fulcrum. We either throw everything we have back up the lever, or we will not be able to recover and salvage a peaceful outcome that is in any way favorable for us.

It's here. It's now. And we're watching the Michael Jackson trial?

Yes, I suppose I do hate America.


GravatarBLogwhore--my take on the CNN fiasco (GWPDA, I stole your Juarez story, hope that was okay)--statistics on missing persons included.


GravatarThe movie that changed the way American men dressed - they all abandoned their undershirts after Clark Gable took his shirt off in the movie and he wasn't wearing one under it.

And then went out in the front yard with a garden hose, imagining they looked like Clark Gable.

Haven't forgiven him for that yet.....


GravatarTom Cruise and Dakota Fanning are dating, CNN has learned. Cruise, 42, and Fanning, 11, "have only been dating a couple of weeks," says a friend of Cruise

Prediction: Dakota Fanning will be the next runaway bride.


GravatarHoward Beale's poignant "I just ran out of bullshit" moment notwithstanding, the media oligarchs are so intent on turning us into mushwits that we must kill our televisions. It is hard to fight an enemy with an outpost in your own head.
Thanks to bkny at 12:03 for that one.


GravatarRMJ - No, I agree. The greatest human interest story out there is what has been happening in Iraq and in our VA hospitals back here.

It would be a tremendous service to humanity if the media would tell those stories, instead of swooning over girls gone missing "just because."


GravatarThe movie that changed the way American men dressed - they all abandoned their undershirts after Clark Gable took his shirt off in the movie and he wasn't wearing one under it.

Is that true?

I want to know what damned movie caused men to stop wearing bowler-type hats; what a sad day it was when that happened.

Why do I say this? In the words of George Castanza, "it was a bald paradise."


GravatarNYMaryy,

How sad is it that AOL news trumps a farking NEWS network? Sigh.


GravatarAnd then went out in the front yard with a garden hose, imagining they looked like Clark Gable.

For sure. I often think how nice the scenery would improve at the beach if men had to cover topside as well.


GravatarThe Roman emperors used bread and circuses to pacify the population and make them easy to rule. The Romans were smarter than Americans are. We don't even get any bread.

It's raining; I can't garden; I'm grumpy. Just waiting for CNN to suggest that the "answer" to this "nationwide problem" is for women not to be allowed out in public unless accompanied by a male relative. Hmmm, where have I heard that before?


GravatarLook at it as a cry for help. CNN desperately wants someone to buy it, and turn it into an actual news cha nnel again.
I suggest someone do just that, and buy up A&E and the History Channel as well, and combine all three, so we have an hour of today's news, an hour of history to compare it to, and an hour of culture to decompress before starting all over again. And nothing has to be repeated twice a day.
Or , if that's too expensive, just buy CNN, trade it for a used Buick, a laptop, and a webcam, and do a blog-tour of America.


GravatarIn other news, Lucy has done her regular Saturday Morning Cat Blogging!

http://stickandballguy.blogspot....t- blogging.html


GravatarI don't think so either, and the reason I don't is because "human interest" stories have always been popular. In the first place, they're easy. They're easy to report and easy to understand.



The American people want the distraction. Shame on them.

Did anyone else catch David Ray Griffen on CSPAN-2 and his book: Distortions and Omissions? I bet albert champion did.


GravatarIt was Jack Kennedy, I believe, who stopped american men, at least, from wearing hats, wasn't it?


Gravatar". and, what must the families of the "4 soldiers killed in Iraq today""

What 4 soldiers? Did CNN cover it? If so, I missed it -

I don't get CNN, but what the hay!


GravatarHudson - we've all been fearing this for Iraq. The problem is that the government learned the lesson of Vietnam very very well. As long as you keep Americans in the dark about just how devastating a war really is, then you can count on people supporting it just because America started it.

There's been a news blackout in effect since the invasion. The greatest propaganda tool this government ever came up with was the embedding of reporters with the military. That was fucking genius - they managed to control the reporting right from the start.


GravatarLater dudes- Real life is calling.


GravatarLucy, those are gorgeous! Jags looks like how I feel this morning.


GravatarThe Saudis still crucify people and with that absolute monarch, Bush was holding his hand.


GravatarTena make me cry.


GravatarBut, doesn't the missing dog have to be white and female to be a good story? The photos winsome, cute, or beatiful?


GravatarYes, there've always been human interest stories, interspersed in the news. The problem is that now there's no news, only human interest, and only a very narrow kind of human interest story: white woman (preferably pregnant, middle class, attractive, young) missing/dead/brain dead. It's weirdly sexually sick and we get only that and no real news. It stinks. The more we get of it, the more people assume that real news is too esoteric and difficult to understand so they should just ignore it and place their faith in a weirdly desexualized white male xian ruler.



GravatarStill relevant after all these years:

Horkheimer and Adorno

"The stunting of the mass-media consumer’s powers of imagination and spontaneity does not have to be traced back to any psychological mechanisms; he must ascribe the loss of those attributes to the objective nature of the products themselves, especially to the most characteristic of them, the sound film. They are so designed that quickness, powers of observation, and experience are undeniably needed to apprehend them at all; yet sustained thought is out of the question if the spectator is not to miss the relentless rush of facts."

Well, okay, you need to substitute "television" for "sound film," but otherwise a pretty precise description, no?


GravatarAtrios, stop watching.


GravatarLIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRS!
OOOOOOOOOOIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLL!
WAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNKKKEEEERRRRSSSS!


WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I WANT MY MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Gravatarhmmmm.... woman gets 'cold feet'. a 600+ plus guest list for the wedding. I don't know how she feels about her hubby to be, but I'm betting she was most terrified about telling her mother she didn't want to got thru with the ceremony.

and in other news:

while I have been holding on to my few hundred Turner Broadcasting shares for many years now (no matter what they rename the company, it was TBS shares I bought in 1989), in hopes that Ted would return to split off CNN from the bloated corporate monster which devoured TBS, or that Soros would consider a hostile takeover, I give up. I'm calling the broker on Monday to sell the shares and put the proceeds into the euro based portion of my pathetic retirement fund.

I was once 'the news junkie' of my social circles. Read at least one newspaper a day. Had CNN on in my office night and day, with C-Span as back up. If there was flood in Bangladesh caused by deforestation in China, I knew about it. If a back-bench Dem was busted for fiddling election accounts, I had the goods and could expound on the details for hours. But the news has been stepped on so many times by the time it reaches the teevee 'news', I can't even keep the jones off my back, let alone get high anymore.


GravatarWell, okay, you need to substitute "television" for "sound film," but otherwise a pretty precise description, no?
---

And then substitute "MTV" for "television".

And yes, elegant precision.


GravatarLOCAL WOMAN SHOWS ANKLE @ CHIMNEYSWEEPS SHOPPE


Gravatarweirdly desexualized white

Hitler was also a weird sexually ambivalent white male. So is Bush and DeLay.


GravatarI don't think so either, and the reason I don't is because "human interest" stories have always been popular. In the first place, they're easy. They're easy to report and easy to understand.

They're cheaper to report, too. Why hire an experienced journalist or (asking too much here) a journalist with , say, a background in middle eastern history and/or culture when you can hire a bottle blonde bimbo or Ken-doll who used to read the weather in Peoria to cover a "missing" white girl?


GravatarFederal charges....hmm.

yes, I think that makes sense...


"CNN pleaded guilty yesterday to federal charges of impersonating a News network."


GravatarBut the news has been stepped on so many times by the time it reaches the teevee 'news', I can't even keep the jones off my back, let alone get high anymore.

Word.


GravatarRes - Oh yeah - do any of the talking heads on CNN or Fox have journalism degrees anymore? Sure it's cheap - these people only have one function - to look good on camera while they read what is written for them.

Reporters they ain't. In fact, reporters become just support staff for attractive faces and hairdos.

Nobody cares about the truth anymore, I swear to the goddesses. We're so used to not hearing the truth that it all just goes right on by.


GravatarThere's been a news blackout in effect since the invasion. The greatest propaganda tool this government ever came up with was the embedding of reporters with the military. That was fucking genius - they managed to control the reporting right from the start.

That's absolutely true. Still, it says something about the spinelessness of the majority of these reporters (or, perhaps, the skillful control of them by the military) that very few of them ever reported on anything untoward.

It doesn't have to be this way. Just got finished teaching Isaac Babel's Red Cavalry, about an "embedded reporter" in the Russo-Polish War of 1920. And although Babel (through his only semi-ficitonal alter ego Lyutov) was very much like our cowed "reporters" of today: a bespectacled intellectual intimidated and awed by the hyper-masculine Red Cossacks around him, he also, much to the irritation of the military leaders, wrote of their savagery and atrocities.

Would a modern-day Babel be hailed as a great writer today, or immediately branded a coward and traitor. (Of course, Babel was also branded a coward and traitor by Bolshevik leaders, but he was recognized by others as an incredibly gifted writer with a finely tuned moral compass.)

Now, of course, Babel eventually perished in Stalin's terror, so perhaps that's what our reporters are worried about.


GravatarAnd GG giving Bush a blow job in the White House doesn't count.


GravatarThere's a missing dog sign taped to the telephone pole in my neighborhood. Should I call CNN?

Only if the dog is white.


GravatarFederal charges because we don't let women just go wherever they want without their parents'/fiance's permission, Atrios. I think she left w/o her burka, too. Her parents might have had to return her bride price to her fiance's family.



Gravatarsdf - Now, of course, Babel eventually perished in Stalin's terror, so perhaps that's what our reporters are worried about

Nah, they're worried about their paychecks, their hair and whether or not they gain 4 ounces that will show on camera.

That's what they worry about.


GravatarThe local TV news (Atlanta, Channel 11) had a story this morning about the "Runaway Bride." The reporter actually said the parents received "devastating news" that their daughter was alive and well and simply had a case of cold feet.


GravatarAmericans are terrified of the real news because we are losing allies and losing power at a mad rate now.

Wildly unpopular and deep in debt, we are literally on our last legs.

Each hour, our opponents wring one concession after another. Americans don't want to see this. They want the status quo to go on forever.

IT IS GONE. We will see the fruits of our defeat all over the place soon.


GravatarHitler was also a weird sexually ambivalent white male. So is Bush and DeLay.

The "Queer for Oil" bit TDS had the other day about Abdullah's visit to Crawford was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.


Gravatar"Human interest story"?

She's neither human nor interesting.


GravatarCan we get Kobe Bryant involved?

This is building to be the story of the month.


Hey Concerto, you forgot the part about how Michael Jackson stopped and gave her a lift to New Mexico! I just saw it on the Cretin News Network, so it must be true!


GravatarThis is why even Atrios have virtually no international news here and why few want to talk about it.

This is because we fear our doom and hope that if we look aside it will somehow pass over our heads and we can go on as usual.

THIS IS A FALSE HOPE.

Seriously. The fun here won't last long if we discuss the real news and the real news is far nastier than the public USA version.


GravatarSTOP WATCHING DUMMY! LET THEM BOTTOM OUT!


GravatarAtrios. I think she left w/o her burka, too. Her parents might have had to return her bride price to her fiance's family.

I doubt if a man had disappeared prior to a wedding it would have been anything.


GravatarYesterday for twenty minutes the Chinese experimented with the international currency markets, nearly tipping it over.

Satisfied, they are now meeting to decide what to do next. This is why Feith suddenly surrendered to them.

Our military can't move in the China Seas now at will.


GravatarNext on CNN:

"Diane leaves Sam at altar AGAIN. Under suspicion of making a mind-bogglingly suicidal career move."


Gravatar...now the CNN anchor is wondering if maybe, just maybe, there could be federal charges filed...federal charges? for what?

For making CNN look like the stupid whoresucking fucks they are.


GravatarThings in Iraq started going bad right after the fall of Baghdad. The insurgency started slowly, but it was there. Bush was told by the military, the state dept, & the cia, there should be many more troops to provide security and stability. He never added the numbers he needed, even as the situation deteriorated. Why?
Stupidity is too simple an answer.

Let's compare wars. Poppy Bush attacked Iraq, won quickly and split. He was not re-elected.

Junior attacks Iraq, but drags it out, calling anyone who complains unpatriotic. Calls himself a war president and gets re-elected.

This was Karl Rove's war. All image-no facts. No dead troops can be shown, no wounded troops can be interviewed at Walter Reed unless they're still so gung ho they want to return to Iraq when they're finished with rehab. Big mission accomplished banner on the USS Lincoln.

Yup. It's all a circus.


GravatarWell, okay, you need to substitute "television" for "sound film," but otherwise a pretty precise description, no?
sdf | -- 1:04 pm


don't forget the flicker...

our eyes are designed to respond to flickers...by the time you resolve what it was you saw flickering, you're likely to be a meal...law of the sea (we have aqueous eyes, fish eyes; not bug eyes, which are the other kind around)

film flickered (and still flickers) fetchingly; tv is faster still i believe. so, along with sound, along with the carefully crafted visual stimuli themselves, along with the narrative, the modern visual media bind us raptly to them by playing with our 'flight-or-fight' instinct...
it's insidious, and the capture is by and large complete.
i used to demonstrate this to myself and my students by leaving a tv/monitor running blue-screen in a corner of the classroom where it was very easy to notice when someone turned to glance at the screen...
i'd make notes of the numbers of glances the screen collected throughout a 90-minute class period, just random sampling the room...

the results, though not published, were astonishing: everyone in the classroom, as nearly as i could tell, at at least one time during the class, turned to check out the blue--but still flickering--screen...

i toyed with the idea of throwing up random images, both for pedagogic as wellas for experimental reasons, but somehow never quite got around to it...

(needless to say, i retired without tenure)
#


GravatarWhen Bretton Woods I failed, this hit ME hard...in the wallet, in my life. Very hard.

Now Bretton Woods II is failing.

Everyone will feel the pain. One way or another. Most likely in the form of more lost jobs, higher inflation/costs and of course, lost power.

The IMF will be forced to take over our debts and will strip us of all our social safety nets. This is why Bush is doing it as fast as possible. He is preparing us for the Bill Due: we have to pay for the $2+trillion in new debt he rang up for us.

Whoopee.

This is why the news has to be hysterical about stupid things. They need to keep us asleep at the wheel.


GravatarI doubt if a man had disappeared prior to a wedding it would have been anything.

Ô¿Ô,

I agree completely. Men disappear prior to weddings all the time. It's called "jilting" -- it doesn't make the national news. Men also become brain-dead and have their tubes pulled, but Congress doesn't go into special session over it. The whole thing has a weird snuff vibe to it, just tuned down a bit so middle murika can enjoy it but feel righteous and maudlin at the same time. Creepy.


GravatarOur military can't move in the China Seas now at will.
Elaine Supkis -1:19 pm


Being a super-power sucks when somebody else is holding all your markers...


GravatarIf memory serves, the original CNN
anchorman -- Reid somebody -- was
the model for Ted Baxter on the old
Mary Tyler Moore show.

In other words, a clueless idiot.

I don't think there ever was a golden
age of CNN.


GravatarOur military can't move in the China Seas now at will.
Elaine Supkis -1:19 pm


elaine, how long do you think it'll take for japan to rearm? go nuclear (if there's any real difference)?

nuclear war in east asia's not gonna be pretty, especially since the prevailing winds will blow all the radiation eastward across the Pacific...

all because the Busheviks owed HUGE tax cuts to their owners...

so glad i poured clorox in my end of the gene pool...
.


GravatarDid anyone else catch David Ray Griffen on CSPAN-2 and his book: Distortions and Omissions? I bet albert champion did.
Ô¿Ô


I did, too.


GravatarThis is why the news has to be hysterical about stupid things. They need to keep us asleep at the wheel.
Elaine Supkis


Of course. But try explaining that to a wing nut or a fundie.


GravatarYesterday for twenty minutes the Chinese experimented with the international currency markets, nearly tipping it over.

WaPo has an article about that (I linked to it earlier on one of the CNN threads), but I don't know how accurate it is, seems to maybe whitewash what really happened. Maybe an economist (hint, hint) could explain...


GravatarI just got off the phone with a friend whose sister-in-law went missing almost three years ago, leaving a husband three young kids behind. Local authorities looked for a while but found no trace of her or her car. There was no activity on her cell phone or credit cards.

The family was unable to get any national coverage to keep the story and her search alive. No big dragnets, no FBI, no CNN.

"She wasn't pregnant, she wasn't getting married in a few days and it wasn't Christmas," my friend said.

Later this month each of her children will release a dove, one for each year she has been missing.


GravatarFunny--sat down this morning with remote in hand, flipped on TV, tuned to CNN but found C-Span3 (I never watch CNN, I always forget where it is). Showing a talk between Franken, Alterman, Ingraham, and Carlson, from January, on whether the media is biased, or not.

No longer the question, actually, as Alterman pointed out. He was arguing about "objectivity" v."balanced." The latter is when you point out the POTUS is lying; the former, when you just report what he says sans comment.

The question actually is: which news outlets are competent anymore, and which not? Watching two CNN anchors earlier, I was reminded of stereotypical back fence gossipers, talking about people they don't know and situations they have only heard about.

And now they're down to speculating on "federal charges"? What, did she violate the Mann Act against herself?

I'll retire to Bedlam....


GravatarNext on CNN:

"Diane leaves Sam at altar AGAIN. Under suspicion of making a mind-bogglingly suicidal career move."
sdf


*snort!*


Gravatarthere is a real kidnapped bride story on the front page of the NYTimes--about Kyrgyzstan and how about how a third of brides are taken against there will right off the street!
"Such abductions are common here. More than half of Kyrgyzstan's married women were snatched from the street by their husbands in a custom known as "ala kachuu," which translates roughly as "grab and run." In its most benign form, it is a kind of elopement, in which a man whisks away a willing girlfriend. But often it is something more violent."


GravatarI forgot to add, there's a lot of money to be made in chaos too. Another reason for dragging out the mess in Iraq.


Gravatar"CNN pleaded guilty yesterday to federal charges of impersonating a News network."


Nah, they'd never plead guilty. Too bad they can't have Johnny Cochran represent them though.


film flickered (and still flickers) fetchingly; tv is faster still i believe. so, along with sound, along with the carefully crafted visual stimuli themselves, along with the narrative, the modern visual media bind us raptly to them by playing with our 'flight-or-fight' instinct...
it's insidious, and the capture is by and large complete.


Literally the hypnobox, no?


GravatarI want to know what damned movie caused men to stop wearing bowler-type hats; what a sad day it was when that happened.

Why do I say this? In the words of George Castanza, "it was a bald paradise."
sdf


Yes! But the problem is that now half the men in the country wear baseball caps instead. If they're going to hide their baldness by covering it up, can't we all go back to fedoras? At least those were classy and didn't make men look like overgrown 12-year-olds.

Sorry, pet peeve.


GravatarYesterday for twenty minutes the Chinese experimented with the international currency markets, nearly tipping it over

Saw that. Reminded me of how Enron experimented with its ability to cause congestion on California's power lines months before the crisis actually hit.


GravatarI did, too.
san antone rose


They're blatantly not telling us so many things. Is this our country anymore?


GravatarBeing a super-power sucks when somebody else is holding all your markers...
WoodyGuthriesGuitar(aka..


Well, Irag's got us by the "super powers ," so....


GravatarThe fiance, according to the story on CNN's site, says he wasn't the least bit concerned that they'd start looking at him as a suspect.

Sucker. If she'd stayed missing until Monday, they would have Petersoned him without a second thought.


GravatarAnd now they're down to speculating on "federal charges"? What, did she violate the Mann Act against herself?

I'll retire to Bedlam....
Rmj, Dynamic Swami | Email | Homepage | 04.30.05 - 1:28 pm | #


She violated the Terri Act: you can't use your brain.


GravatarThey're blatantly not telling us so many things. Is this our country anymore?


No, Ô¿Ô, it hasn't been for some time. Tha's why they're so loud.


GravatarWhat, did she violate the Mann Act against herself?


I always thought, and still do, that naming that legislation the Mann Act was one of the funniest things....

Simple minds, simple pleasures, I guess.


GravatarLuLu--I am so sorry about your sister in law. According to the National Center for Missing Adults, something like 30,000 men and women are currently missing in this country for longer than one year. CNN could not care less.


GravatarI was reminded of stereotypical back fence gossipers, talking about people they don't know and situations they have only heard about.

Rmj...you gotta read Boorstin's The Image (1961--i had thought 64, but went back and checked)...40-plus years ago, the outlines of this were already well enough advanced to be detectable by a scholar of some wit and perspicuity. Boorstin went on to become Librarian of Congress, and did the job with distinction...among other things (a bunch of history books, for one thing)

like you haven't enough to read...i know...
.


GravatarI'm out for a bit, but it looks like rain, I'll no doubt be back.


Gravatarbeautiful cats, Lucy.


GravatarReporters they ain't. In fact, reporters become just support staff for attractive faces and hairdos.

Weirdest thing on that C-Span show was Alterman quoting Grover Norquist, who said "liberal" journalists are journalists first, while "conservative" journalists are conservatives first.

Carlson took great umbrage with that (his bow tie almost twirled in indignation!), insisting that he was a by god Journalist!

It doesn't get any more surreal than that.


GravatarSantorum wants to pass the Turtle Act.

Can't carry a turtle across state lines for sex.


GravatarFederal Charges against CNN et al for being so freaking incompetent....


GravatarThen there is the Sultan Act: you can carry a Saudi across state lines only if you hold his hand.


GravatarThanks, WGG, I will.


GravatarWhat, we began a 'grassroots effort' to "take our country back"?

BWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!


GravatarThe Asshole Act: aka, the Gannon Law: you MUST be a whore if you want to ask Bush a question.


GravatarIf someone buys CNN to make it an actual NEWS channel, will they re-hire Lynne Russell? Oh please please please.....?


GravatarYou know "Goodbye Earl", the Dixie Chicks song in which a couple of long-time friends do away with the abusive husband of one of them by wrapping him in an old rug and dropping it in a lake?

I just thought of a use for that "Mission Accomplished" banner.


GravatarLike the Mongols, you wrap the ruler in a rug and sit on it.


Gravatar
I always thought, and still do, that naming that legislation the Mann Act was one of the funniest things....


Presumably you had been studying for a very, very, very long time, eh?


GravatarWGG, your experiment really takes me back...

My 9th grade health teacher (who used to be my Dad's old high school history teacher) used to play music during our labeling the bones and muscles exams. His two main selections were Rings in Africa by Toto and Islands in the Stream by Kenny Rogers/Dolly Parton. A couple of times he pretended to be typing during our exams. I looked up once, directly into his eyes as he went "tap" "tap" "tap." Freaked the hell out of me.

Of course he also had a "barbed wire fence" drawn around his desk with a blue magic marker. Whenever anyone crossed the fence, he would yell "watch out for mah fence! you're lettin' mah cows out!"

Surreal.

On the TV thing though, I can completely ignore it. My husband on the other hand, loses his hearing completely when a TV is on. Flight or fight, eh? He'd be so dead. CHOMP.


Gravatar>

Fallujah? Nothing to see there.

But seriously, I'd appreciate if anybody can toss my way, a definitive website or three, where the BBC or somebody visually documents what's been going on there, all the damage and everything. I'd like to be able to direct some buddies there.

Right-wing buddies. As I sat near them at a bar the other day, I had to listen to one describe an internet video, where American troops supposedly take all these enormous pains to 'identify the mosque' so that they don't fire on it. Before unloading on everything else in sight. The other guy drank it up, of course.


GravatarWay off thread

Who said this?

"If we get rid of the moon, women, whose menstrual cycles are governed by the moon,
will not get PMS. They will stop bitching and whining."

of course if you know the URL to that moon song it might help


GravatarSorry, pet peeve.
Buzz Bomb -1:29 pm


A male, I wear hats--a wide, varied, diverse assortment of hats, a collection numbering in the dozens--and have since i started losing my hair (noticeably, by age 30). And I grow my facial hair extravagantly. But it is not for vanity's sake that i wear hats (i'm takin the 5th on the beard). Instead, to protect my melanin-deficient pate from the damage wrought by the sun...
when i surfed, i'd tie a ballcap onto my head with an elastic band tied in my ponytail, slather every exposed square inch in the highest screen-value goop i could find (bullfrog was the kind in the day).

i have even begun to wear long sleeves during the summer...

my dad was constantly having sun-induced growths scoured from his skin, and i'm fairer than he, if anything...

so, i wear hats...

know how you know you look good in a hat???

you *think* you look good in a hat...
.


GravatarI see my cut-n-paste didn't work, it was a para. from 'Joseph Palmer's' 12:33.


Gravatarthey all abandoned their undershirts after Clark Gable took his shirt off in the movie and he wasn't wearing one under it.

Is that true?

I have to confess I've worn an undershirt every day of my life and always wear it under a shirt. In my day only cheap boys wore just a tee shirt.
They said that the wedding was going to be something huge, lots of attendants etc. I've always suspected that the length of the marriage was usually inversely proportional to the size of the wedding.
Now, those people have used up enough of my life.


GravatarIt's just a damn shame that McLuhan wasn't understood in his own time.

Watched the McLuhan's Wake docu recently. I cried.


Gravatar"Who said this?"

Governor Gropinator... you know, the moderate voice of the GOP.

http://www.apollocinemas.co.uk/p...hp? page=lowdown


Gravatarmy dad was constantly having sun-induced growths scoured from his skin, and i'm fairer than he, if anything...

so, i wear hats...

Me too. Disgustingly pale so it's a hat, long sleves and pants too. With the odd result that my hair is much older than my face.


GravatarThanks for the kind thoughts, TJ, but it was my friend's sister-in-law, not mine. She was jsut expressing her frustration with the wall to wall coverage the Atlanta run-away bride was getting and the lack of progress her sister in law's case had. BTW, her brother, the missing woman's husband, was Scott Petersoned the first month by the local news, but when he was cleared of any possible involvement, no one word was in the paper or on TV.


GravatarThe new CNN home page can be found here.


GravatarBlue Dragon--There are plenty of moon songs; "American Werewolf in London" had a dozen or so on the soundtrack.

But perhaps this is the one you meant

Van Morrison--not


GravatarI don't see any other option, anymore. Our elections are stolen under the cover of about "fundie morals" advancing neo-con goals of 'Murkan Dominion Empire of the world, when it advances corporate interests and 'Murkan Christians and Jewish Dominionists Israeli intersts. And also corporate interests. Have I mentionied: coporate interests. And China. The guy there has weird hair in North Korea and the nuclear option.


Gravatarhat, we began a 'grassroots effort' to "take our country back"?

BWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Ô¿Ô


Well the thing about a grassroots effort is that it isn't always noticeable for awhile. That's what happened with the extremists - not all that many people noticed their grassroots campaign until it had started having success.

In fact, some of us are working really hard at grassroots efforts to take the country back. We're starting where you aren't going to see it - locally. That's the way it gets done.


GravatarYes! But the problem is that now half the men in the country wear baseball caps instead. If they're going to hide their baldness by covering it up, can't we all go back to fedoras?

Absolutely agree. I rarely, if ever, cover it up with a baseball hat; I do have a ratty fedora in the closet which I pull out occasionally. Maybe I'll have to follow WGG"s lead and start a hat-wearing revolution.

Of course, mostly it's just easier to cut it off. Of all the great things Michael Jordan did, as far as I'm concerned the greatest was to make a shaved head sexy. (Although, for the geekier girls, it was Jean-Luc Picard. I in fact had a woman say that to me on a first date years ago that Patrick Stewart had made bald sexy for her.)


GravatarI wrote about this phenomenon of the 24/7 news infrastructure nationalizing local news stories back in 1997 after the Heaven's Gate cult mass suicide.

For what it's worth, here's:

"Faux National Tragedies"


GravatarJebus...It seems like someone at CNN was watching the beginning to Heavens Burning on IFC yesterday, heard about this and then thought America needs to be titillated with this shit.


GravatarIt's just a damn shame that McLuhan wasn't understood in his own time.

Watched the McLuhan's Wake docu recently. I cried.
san antone rose --
1:47 pm

a rosita, he was well understood in his time. the media as we know them today are almost a literal appropriation of his theoretical precepts.

And Innis, too...his early and influential colleague...

somebody else was quoting Horkheimer and Adorno earlier this morning, too...

why do you think it is that these names are strange and foreign to most USers?

i bet it might have something to do with the extent of their having been appropriated, wholesale, for the purposes of control and surveillance...
.


GravatarI don't think there ever was a golden
age of CNN.


I fondly remember that several-dozen-part series on the Cold War Turner ran near the end that got the brownshirts all hot and bothered. The video equivalent of that six-part series on grains the New Yorker once ran...

Other than that, though, you're probably right. I was, however, a big fan of "Headline News" - no frills, rip-and-read, half-hour and out then do it again.

Of course, the presence of Lynne Russell might have had something to do with my compulsion to watch... and watch... and watch...


GravatarMissed Cory's comment... I'm with you, pal!


GravatarWGG...oh yeah, you gotta protect yourself from the sun. I work outdoors...I'm out in it a lot...I'm all about covering up rather than exposing my skin. Long sleeves, long pants, hats, and the sunscreen gets slathered on all day. And as my hairline recedes, the sunscreen creeps further and further up my forehead. I know too many people who have already paid a heavy price for being careless with UV radiation.


Gravataroops. sorry for the confusion, Lulu. I have like 17 windows open in my browser, trying to read tons of different things at once.


GravatarI'll say it again.

I haven't watched a SECOND of CNN in months (nor have I visited cnn.com). I'm just as well-informed as ever and my blood pressure is a few clicks lower.

CNN is Utterly Worthless.


GravatarWe're going to be having a garage sale next week in our neighborhood. Any chance CNN can send little Timmy out to cover it?


GravatarShe violated the Terri Act: you can't use your brain.
Elaine Supkis | Email | Homepage | 04.30.05 - 1:32 pm | #


Well worth repeating.


GravatarT-shirts vs Undershirts

the distinction dissolved for me, if there ever was one, when i entered the service...

ever since, that item is simply another layer of clothing. Warmer in winter: hence, undershirt; cool in summer: hence t-shirt... the last ex-MRS/DR WGG and i collected the damn things everywhere...i still have a Dr.Johnny Fever/Black Death t-shirt in aq box somewhere...
it's getting delicate, and i don't wear it much anymore, but it's too cool for the ragbox...


GravatarYou dumbocrats never learn

and we just keep stuffing the cash in our pockets > praise jeezbus!


Gravatardamn, i can't go back to sleep


Gravatarcom'on - the MSM is there for the monied interests, not to report the news. Some moron news director thought they had a Scott Peterson story going that they could milk for months.


Gravatara few chores, and then perhaps later today H2G2...it's cheaper at the matinee...so if it sucks, not much lost...it's too bad i know the books so well, but wtf? i loved the BBC tv version, cuz it was so cheezy. It anticipated the Dr.Who phenomenon, iirc (bicbw...).
later gaiters...
dr.J


Gravatarwommin should not have money they might buy a bus ticket and then who am I gonna beat when the braves lose a game?


GravatarGo read Ted Rall's column yesterday about a real woman abduction story that the MSM has completely ignored:

http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/

lead paragraph:
"They've vanished into the netherworld of a Homeland Security gulag and their story has already disappeared from the headlines, but the shocking case of two 16-year-old girls from New York City arrested a month ago ought to inspire outrage among every American worthy of the name. Since the government's reasons for the girls' imprisonment could apply to virtually any teenager, it should also spark fear."


GravatarDOA with Edmund O'Brien, TCM now!


GravatarI like men in hats, and I think women look great in hats, too. Good thing, because as we burn away our ozone, covering up will be the new black.


Gravatar"They've vanished into the netherworld of a Homeland Security gulag and their story has already disappeared from the headlines, but the shocking case of two 16-year-old girls from New York City arrested a month ago ought to inspire outrage among every American worthy of the name. Since the government's reasons for the girls' imprisonment could apply to virtually any teenager, it should also spark fear."


Yeah, but who needs to hear about this shit when . . . we had a van full of women that had been heading for the local Meijer decide to go to . . . Jewel instead! And it was in another state! Goddamn it, people, lets get someone to look into this, pronto!


Gravatarfederal charges for being a bad girl.


GravatarThis woman has committed a crime. If she just disappeared without a trace and did not later claim she was kidnapped, you're right no crime committed just extreme insensitivity
toward her fiance, family, and friends.

However, she cut off part of her hair and left clothing items
on the road to make it look like there was a struggle and foul play involved in her disapearance. This coupled with her false kidnapping claims to her family and law enforcement make it an actual crime.

This business about a woman does not have to get her man's permission to go somewhere is not relevant to this at all.

Bottom line, I think this woman is nuts and she cracked. She needs professional help. With all due respect, I detect a hint of madness in her eyes. Does anyone else feel the same? I suppose my view on her eyes is very subjective and unscientific -- it's just my gut reaction.


GravatarAnd lets milk this cow until it's bone dry, shall we?


CNN.com poll--

Should police prosecute a person who fakes their own abduction?

Yes 65% 8219 votes
No 3% 427 votes
Depends on the circumstances 31% 3926 votes


Gravatardrew,

Can you cite me the USC section that makes it against the law to cut your hair and lie to your family? Thanks!


GravatarBoy, do I have a story to tell CNN.

I know where the WMD are!

Just wait until they call!

Oh, the stories I can tell....


---


Gravatarthey were just following fox news channel's lead by following this story.. i guess it shows where their priorities are.


GravatarI still, um, "violate the Mann act against myself" when my wife is away at a conference sometimes, if you know what I'm saying.

And I think that you do.


GravatarIt's just a damn shame that McLuhan wasn't understood in his own time.

Watched the McLuhan's Wake docu recently. I cried.
san antone rose --1:47 pm

a rosita, he was well understood in his time. the media as we know them today are almost a literal appropriation of his theoretical precepts.


Point taken. I meant that we didn't heed McLuhan's warnings against what the media would become. We let it happen anyway.

Sorry, I'm trying to type and listen to Bill Maher (taped from last night) at the same time if I'm not making sense.


GravatarWhile the future bride was still missing, I wondered what caused the story to rank national news status. People disappear everyday. What made this story so important? I figured the family must've had money. Looks like they did.


Gravatar"Can you cite me the USC section that makes it against the law to cut your hair and lie to your family? Thanks!"

Hecate--the point is that by pretending and claiming to be kidnapped she wasted valuable police time and resources.


GravatarI like to purchase abducted women. It makes me feel like a real man, and quite liberal too.

I am a hero, and I say so.


GravatarI love the original "DOA"--haven't seen the remake.

My favorite scene is when the doctor comes into the room to tell Edmund O that he's been zapped with a "luminous poison." and is doomed. The doctor is carrying a vial of EO's blood and EO doesn't believe him (would you?).

So the doctor turns off the liight and the screen goes entirely black, except for the glowing little cylinder in the doctor's hand.

How's that for bedside manner?


Gravatarxvj,

I get that. I'm looking for any citation to a fedaral law that she may have broken.

Rain's stopped. I'l be a muddy mess, but I'm going to plant thyme and hollyhocks.


Gravatar It anticipated the Dr.Who phenomenon, iirc (bicbw...).

Other way around. Dr Who began in the 60s, and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop that did the sound effects for H2G2 on radio and TV started work on Dr Who.

By the time the H2G2 TV series appeared, Dr Who was already past Tom Baker, and Blake's Seven was in its final years. Last hoorah for crap sci-fi on the BBC. Oh, apart from The Tripods.


GravatarOT: my wife just got her annual Social Security statement, and there's a little bit of Bush-lovin' propaganda on the first page about the Trust Fund running out and how 'we will need to resolve these issues soon'. Which is nice.


GravatarSucker. If she'd stayed missing until Monday, they would have Petersoned him without a second thought
Scott or Michael, Stranger?


GravatarBottom line, I think this woman is nuts and she cracked. She needs professional help. With all due respect, I detect a hint of madness in her eyes. Does anyone else feel the same? I suppose my view on her eyes is very subjective and unscientific -- it's just my gut reaction.
drewmpls | Email | Homepage | 04.30.05 - 2:19 pm | #


Liked your post until the point you started reading her eyes. We wanna back away from the Bill Frist diagnosis-by-TV stuff, don't we?


GravatarDraco:
That's my favorite scene in DOA,too.

Another great one is when the
profoundly psychotic Neville
Brand roughs up Edmond O'Brien.

The defiant
"I am so gonna kill you later"
look on O'Brien's face is priceless.


GravatarI read that multi issue New Yorker story about grains. It was interesting and informative.
Who isn't fascinated by rice and the part it has played in human history? And corn? Kept me on the edge of my seat.


Gravatarif we are repeating Vietnam in Iraq (watch for the American embassy evacuation scene), when do we get to repeat the feminist movement?

Looks like we need to.

I've been (unsystematically) keeping track of indices of anti-feminism, from the very serious (the "culture of life" movement and its links to the Republican leadership) to only apparently trivial. Witness the media culture blaring the return of SAHMs and retro 1950-60s fashions that gradually became less and less ironic, more and more earnest.

Again, big business and the fundies are responsible. The idea that women might stop cooking and caring for children and wear only black pantsuits to work (albeit expensive ones, as I assume Hillary does) frightened the hell out of the corporate world.

The wedding industry is as much of a rip-off as the defense industry.

The bride didn't go far enough. Should have headed for Mexico.


GravatarTroutski, thanks for the link to Ted Rall.


GravatarBTW, another reason to love Turner
Classic Movies:

This is by far the best looking
print of DOA I've ever seen.


Gravatarbtw, if you haven't read the Ted Rall column, this part is especially timely, given today's news:

When this story first broke I didn't write about it because I assumed that a public outcry would soon lead to its reasonable resolution. Sadly, this has not happened.

Thanks, CNN! Way to do your job.


GravatarIf CNN had some balls they'd use this story to segway into the REAL problem of the thousands of people that legitimately go missing every year. Oh, if I ran the news...

OT - Saw Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy last night. Hardly flawless, but supremely enjoyable. Casting was excellent, humour was subtle in all the right places (at some points, my husband, friends and I were the only ones laughing), and a good flick for the kids. Greatly enjoyed the thinly-veiled Bush/Gore references. May see House of Wax next weekend to see Paris Hilton murdered horribly (hopefully)...


GravatarUh oh. CNN headline news is now reporting that the bride had some "issues that the family did not know about."

The family is apparently "looking forward to loving her and discussing these issues."

Hmmm. I think I know what those issues might be.

CNN even showed the wedding invitation -- propped up on a black velvet backdrop.


GravatarGood morning all.

You folks should be ashamed of yourselves. I've been in a car for the last two days and knew nothing of any of this. Because of you guys I actually turned on CNN just now.

Yeeechhhhh.

And in case you missed it - they're running a one hour special on the case on tonight.

The 5 dead soldiers in Iraq got a 7 second mention.


Gravatar"they are whores is not an acceptable answer. whores go where the money is"
-t. scheisskopf

production costs. it doesn't cost much at all to hire one talking head and have him say a girl is missing. there is no research to do or anything. she will either turn up or she won't. if your costs are low enough, you can make plenty of money even without huge ratings. it's basically the uhf model of the media business.


GravatarThis just in...Paige on Fox News hates Julie Banderas!

You shoulda seen the stink eye + mouth smirk Paige just shot Julie. It clearly said "whore."


GravatarSpeaking of TCM: "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers" at 12:30 PDT.

Even lesser Harryhausen is worth a gander...


GravatarCNN even showed the wedding invitation -- propped up on a black velvet backdrop.

What a scoop! They might not have bothered to look into who actually forged the Rather memos, but they've got the wedding invitation!

Spectacular!


Gravataroops.


GravatarThis just in...Paige on Fox News hates Julie Banderas!

Who?


GravatarShe's clearly a felon for transporting herself across state lines in order to abort a wedding without parental consent.


GravatarCNN.com poll--

Should police prosecute a person who fakes their own abduction?

Yes 65% 8219 votes
No 3% 427 votes
Depends on the circumstances 31% 3926 votes
Big Daddy Mars

Eschatonian poll:

Should police prosecute a person who fakes their own election?

Here's one vote yes.

If you don't know you are too stupid to be voting.
The circumstances don't matter either.


GravatarShe's clearly a felon for transporting herself across state lines in order to abort a wedding without parental consent.
Steve Brady

Yes. And she's carrying all those potential zygotes too. We can't let them get away with that.


Gravatar"With all due respect, I detect a hint of madness in her eyes. Does anyone else feel the same?"

Yes


Gravatar> May see House of Wax next weekend to see Paris Hilton murdered horribly (hopefully)...


Post of the day!


GravatarCNN.com poll--

Should Daryn start blowing Rush to reduce his teen-sex-all-oral-gore tirades?

Yes 65% 8219 votes
No 3% 427 votes
Depends on the circumstances 31% 3926 votes


GravatarYou know, I think Paris Hilton and Ann Coulter are the same person.



Oh no, wait a minute. I forgot the adam's apple. Sorry


GravatarThis reminds me of the great old Mr. Show sketch: "Local World News: Local News from around the world." The top story, "Button Man" has collected over 15,000 buttons. "No word yet on whether he will continue to collect buttons, but we'll keep you updated if the situation changes."


GravatarHecate--the point is that by pretending and claiming to be kidnapped she wasted valuable police time and resources.

I'm telling you, it's prosecutable aggravated mopery. No kidding.

But unless she knowingly signed a police report that was false, t'aint much there.

Unlike, for example, the guy who pulled a gun on the seven illegals at the Arizona rest stop and who the county attorney said was 'protecting himself' and thus not liable. He was protecting himself by hauling seven people out of a vehicle where they had been ignoring him, holding them at gunpoint (and dog point), threatening to shoot them and then forcibly detaining them. The US attorney is not in agreement with the County Attorney's position however....


GravatarI think the whole thing is a HOAX.

It's on TV, so it must be real.

The Iraq War is not on TV, so it isn't "real."


GravatarWAAAHHH!! WHY WON'T THE PRESS MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES THEY DID DURING VIETNAM!! WHY AREN'T THEY ON OUR SIDE!!!


GravatarWasn't this already a movie starring Claudette Colbert?

Kill Bill?


GravatarI'm telling you, it's prosecutable aggravated mopery. No kidding.

When Lifetime does the movie they'll call it "Mopery on the High Ways".


GravatarTHIS PATHETIC TROLL!!! LOL
SOMEONE PAY ATTENTION TO ME PLEEEAAASE.


GravatarCatering to utter stupidity has been the baseline for mass media production values since the inception of mass media; e.g. beer & fastfood commercials.

Wasn't it Will Rogers said something like "I don't have any idea what the truth is, I only know what I read in the papers".

Oh yeah, "Remember the Maine".


GravatarI have little sympathy for a grown woman who would take off for days without at least telling her family and fiance she was leaving, I need to be alone to think, don't worry, I'll call you. But now that she's back, THIS STORY IS OVER. Does it really need its own logo and music on CfuckingNN.


GravatarWhile on the eliptical trainer at the gym this morning I couldn't escape CNN on one of the monitors. From my observation, one solid half hour "missing woman" "coverage" and nothing else...they talked to a policeman, a marriage therapist and a criminal profiler...I was grateful the TV had its volume reduced to zero.
I can't recall this type of "in-depth" coverage on most real news stories. The thing is that I find most people saying that TV news is garbage so I wonder what the motivation is to justify continued coverage of trivial crap?


GravatarCNN was hoping they'd find her chopped up into pieces and thrown into a trunk with old Clinton and Kerry yard posters. Easier to blame the libruls that way.

Cancel CNN.


Gravatar"McIntyre, Babs Starr, hell, even Dana Bash and the golden boy, John King.
bkny | 04.30.05 - 12:03 pm"
TO blny...Golden boy, John King, is SHORT!!! He has to stand on a box when he is doing live reports from on scene. I laughed and laughed and why did Judy "Goebbels" Woodruff say she was quitting her CNN job? And most of all why does Ann Coulter have an adam's apple???


GravatarAnd on Fox they were setting up the husband to take the fall.Fox was all over his ass about taking a lie detector test in private,what horse ases they are!


GravatarMeanwhile, here's the story of a woman who really is in mortal peril -- and whose story deserves to be on CNN 24/7.

Read, then call the Yemeni Embassy.


GravatarIs it me or does it seem like the 24 hour news channels have become significantly worse since the election?


GravatarNews coverage determined by hit counters, what bullshit.

Zombiebirdhouse



Oh, is that how it works, now? Well then, what could possibly be the next level of all this codswallop?

That's easy! CNN will hire a bunch of professional WRITERS. The clever dudes and dudettes who do "CSI:[wherever]", "Without A Trace"; "The Sopranos", "Deadwood"... hey, the boys and girls gotta eat!

Why stop at merely being uncritical when pols and pundits make shit up? Why not make shit up yourself, and just keep the stories with the most popularity in hot rotation, based on web hits?

They could get away with calling this "news". Who's gonna pull your license (in the case of CNN, no license necessary!)? What congressional committee is gonna investigate you, as long as when they need you, they could always count on you to repeat the Official Story, without too much distraction from annoying stuff like critical analysis?

I like to think if Paddy Chayevsky were around today, this whole scenario would be "Network II". And, much like "Network", you'd be laughing your butt off at how wacky and over-the-top it was.

For awhile.


GravatarCompare CNN.com's tabloid-esque domestic coverage of the story with the reasonable coverage that their international site devoted to the issue.

Please Stop Hurting America

Why adjust your programming so only the international audience receives the quality product?


GravatarWHY is this news?

I think her fiance should rethink his choice, however!


GravatarWere the kidnappers Mexican?! - "Lou Dobbs"

No. But dey might haff been. Dot is vy ve must close de borders.
Arnold Schwarzenegger

-"Wedding?"

"We don' need no stinkin' wedding!"


Gravatarthis just in: the missing woman has been found but apparently her identical twin is now missing.
this just in: 17% of twins abduct their own twin in cases of adultery.
this just in: adultery involving twins is up 57% since 1990. some say lack of 'faith' is the reason.
this just in: twins share their faith on the 'pastor bill's healing hour' tomorrow morning.
this just in: jesus loves missing people and desires you to find them.
this just in: the ''missing persons border patrol without borders'' has been formed and is now scouring most highway rest stops for missing persons.
this just in: susan lee averymoddo of lanceport indiana has been UNABLE TO PROVE SHE IS NOT MISSING for three months now while being held in protective custody.


GravatarNancy Grace needs to have her tongue cut out.
Last night she thought she had her next Scott Peterson...and she couldn't have been more gleeful.


Gravatarwhy, she could be brought up on federal charges for blowing a c.i.a. agent's cover as political retribution against her husband....oh. wait. never mind.

or she could be brought up on federal charges for smuggling a prostitute into the white house under false i.d. as a journalist....oh. wait. never mind.

etc.


GravatarReal question - Why does anyone with a computer still watch teeevee for news?
mena | Email | Homepage | 04.30.05 - 12:31 pm |


i don't - haven't since 2000.

i have fantasized about stoving in matt lauer's smug botoxed face with a ball peen hammer, however.


GravatarIncredible! the No1 news on CNN ???????


GravatarThe only sound you hear is the hum of your hard drive.

Get out of your chair, get outside, and throw a brick through a newsvan!


GravatarAs the brother of a woman whose former fiance' had a similar bout of cold feet, this whole media circus over this incident disgusts me. The LAST thing my family would've needed was television crews covering the police bringing him home.

Republicans are feeling the backlash for butting into the Terri Schiavo case. Can we have some public backlash for the media on this one? Pretty please?

Not like the media would cover it, but still.


Gravatar****I Read The News Today, Oh Boy!****

Dateline: Clovis, New Mexico

Over at Yahoo Oddly Enough a story caught my eye that made me do a double take. It seems a kid was doing an advertising project and this appeared to be a giant burrito. Yes, a giant burrito, "filled with steak, guacamole,lettuce, salsa, and jalepenos and wrapped in tinfoil inside a white T shirt" to paraphrase from the AP story from the 29th.

So, what happens? The cops get called, replete with SWAT on the roof and news bringing a gaggle of distraught parents to the school.

But hey, it sounds better than Bush's fu-k ups doesn't it?


GravatarSo...I missed the whole thing. The whole damn thing, except for what I read VERY briefly on the net.

Then my damn Tivo misfires for some reason and it recorded CNN at 9:30 p.m. with people going on and on about this woman..and news about her in on the freaking CRAWL.

Jaysus Christ, and we thought they overdid the Pope!

What a world, what a world. I just wish i could hit a buttom and bring a real press back.


GravatarCome on now...1590 or so dead troops vs. a missing white woman who lied about being kidnapped. Its obvious what's important here. Michael Moore was right when he said that we were stupid - I knew it then and I know it now. We put up with it and they think they're doing everything right.


GravatarAw, leave 'em alown.

They'se jes heppin us keep arr women folk from runnin off and gettin theyselves they own ideers. Them young-uns they got in 'em's arrs, an we take care a arr own, thank you no good city types fer nuttin.

An them purty girls on the TV know they places too an tha's why they knows a REEL man when they sees one, uh-huh.


GravatarI bet Joey Buttafuoca is behind this.


Gravatar"I'm the Slime - Frank Zappa (1973)

Seems Frank was quite prescient, eh?"

You have no idea. I don't have the link handy, dammit, but there is video of him on crossfire warning about the dangers of mixing religion and politics and saying that communism was never as great a threat to this country as the religious right wingnuts and warning against the coming theocracy. That was almost 15 years ago. The wikipedia entry on Frank is very good. We should have listened to him. He truly was a genius. Google Zappa. Read everything you can about him. It may not be too late. He did say, Beware the Fish people.


GravatarActually it may have been over 15 years ago, closer to 20. FZ was a genius and he is on record as to the warning.


GravatarVideo of Zappa on Crossfire, 1982 worth it just to see Frank telling Washington Times columnist John Lofton, "Kiss my ass!" after saying he thought Bob Novak "would be the one frothing today."

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail.../2658805? htv=12


GravatarMy sister was telling me last night that Oxygen has AN. ENTIRE. SHOW. devoted to these "missing bride" type stories.

Ah, the First Network For Women. So, you women types out there in Atrios land? You like these stories?
NTodd


Er, no - I have no time for stupid, helpless women.

Besides, I avoid "nitwit television"


GravatarWAAAHHH!! WHY WON'T THE PRESS MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES THEY DID DURING VIETNAM!! WHY AREN'T THEY ON OUR SIDE!!!
Eschatonian |


What "mistakes"?

They said that the Viet Nam Debacle was a waste of time, money and lives.

And you are posting your insanity from Iraq????

No? I thought not.

Asshat!


GravatarGWDPA! The Frontier! LOL. Sorry, I'm from New Mexico, just don't live there anymore... that one took me back...


GravatarIn a small town in Nebraska, a 3rd grader told her teacher that her dog ate her homework. I can just see CNN's satellite trucks arriving now. BREAKING NEWS will trickle across our TV screens at any moment. Oh gosh darn, no more Kobie Bryant, Terri Schaivo or the Atlanta runaway. Wait a minute... there's always Michael Jackson walking in and out of court with his umbrella... now that's breaking news, I tell ya!


GravatarIf I turn off my TV, stop reading blogs, go outside and play, how will I ever know to read comments posted by people who think I should turn off my TV and stop reading blogs?


GravatarC'mon people. She falsy reported a felony kidnapping. That, too, is a felony.

The mayor of the town is now thinking of suing her to recover the roughly $100K the town spent in search and rescue operations.

Didn't do anything?


GravatarSomeone needs to investigate why that woman has such crazy ass eyes. Creepy dumbass bitch.


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