Journalism's vacation from the truth One day after Tucker Carlson, the co-host of CNN's "Crossfire," made his farewell appearance and two days after the network's new president made the admirable announcement that he would soon kill the program altogether, a television news miracle occurred: even as it staggered through its last steps to the network guillotine, "Crossfire" came up with the worst show in its 23-year history
posted by Postroad on Jan 15, 2005 - 44 comments

Congressman dies of rare disease Congressman Bob Matsui, who was recently elected to a 14th term in Congress, has died due to a rare stem cell disease. Matsui, who was one of the leading opponents of President Bush's plan to eliminate Social Security, was the ranking Democrat on the Congressional subcommittee on Social Security.
posted by expriest on Jan 2, 2005 - 26 comments

Imminent job openings at CNN... Open the link and right click the picture of Bush and wife, click "Save Picture/Image" and look at the filename! In the words of a certain Denis Leary, "He's an asshole, asshole, asshole-e-o-oe-oh". I suggest someone mirrors this ASAP!
posted by metaxa on Nov 4, 2004 - 14 comments

The spokesman said its 'Important to reach out to every single supporter' I guess I shouldn't be suprised, and I guess it's not illegal, but I'll try to be bi-partisan here and say this just seems wrong!!
posted by matty on Jul 2, 2004 - 15 comments

Bob Edwards gets the boot! The host of National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" since its inception in 1979 has been forced out of that job. What's next to go? Susan Stamberg's cranberry relish?
posted by Durwood on Mar 23, 2004 - 72 comments

Nestle, the makers of Poland Spring water are being sued for selling their bottled water as "naturally purified" or "spring water" when in fact it does not meet the scientific criteria for spring water, is worse than some area tap water, and is sourced near "asphalt parking lots or other areas of dangerous contamination".
posted by omidius on Jun 19, 2003 - 34 comments

CNN Wins Ratings for Shuttle Coverage Despite the absence of chief anchor Aaron Brown, CNN scored a significant ratings victory over rival Fox News Channel on Saturday when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated Reading that immediately reminds me of what I hate about the news media. One can only imagine how they are salivating over the pending Iraq situation.
posted by a3matrix on Feb 4, 2003 - 17 comments

"In the game, the player plays the role of a character called The Postal Dude. He lives in a town where there are all kinds of people, white, black, skinny, fat, straight and gay. You can play the game in a passive role without killing anyone," Desi said.

"We are not political," he added.
posted by donkeyschlong on Jan 23, 2003 - 17 comments

Sean Penn totally disses President Bush in the Washington Post but because he did it in a full page ad and not an op/ed column it is totally unlinkable to those of use on the web, and therefore dies on the vine. Two questions: How can one find the full transcript to Penn's advertisment, and why is it that only Republican movie stars are allowed have their voices heard in political discussions?
posted by tsarfan on Oct 19, 2002 - 64 comments

Kids got sunburnt A deputy doing round at a county fair in Ohio noticed three children walking with their mother. Their faces sunburnt like they were "dipped in red paint". Their mother is charged with felony negligence and is facing a 15 year sentence if convicted.
I remember getting a sunburn back in grade school, what's the statute of limitations on charging my 1st grade teacher?
posted by omidius on Aug 21, 2002 - 55 comments

Fortune Magazine went roadtripping in search of the technological future by trying (and not succeeding) to blend in with college kids. After getting schooled themselves, they came up with a list of cool web companies with lots of sex appeal, in the categories of media, communication, biotech, and international. via Blogger.
posted by iconomy on Jun 18, 2002 - 6 comments

Why , why, why? Bush vs. Saddam. Prequel to Desert Storm II.
posted by password on Jun 16, 2002 - 60 comments

Mailbox bomber at large. "More than a half-dozen pipe bombs were placed in rural mailboxes in Illinois and Iowa on Friday, and at least two people were injured in explosions, the post office said." Part of the note that accompanied the bomb said "PS. More info. will be delivered to various locations around the country." If you live in the midwest, be careful.
posted by Kevin Sanders on May 3, 2002 - 19 comments

Right-Wing Bullies Caught in Crossfire "No doubt all of the above qualities irritate the conservatives who follow party instructions to shun Crossfire. What has shocked them is that the new hosts don’t quite fit TV’s stereotypical 97-pound liberal, ready to be worked over like a talking speedbag. Mr. Carville is a tall, rangy Marine veteran, sports fanatic and jock; Mr. Begala is a born-and-bred Texan who grew up with guns and still likes to hunt. Both have expressed their powerful distaste for the Democratic tendency to wilt under attack."
posted by owillis on Apr 14, 2002 - 46 comments

All CNN Video now pay for play. Marketed and sold through RealNetworks' RealOne subscription scheme at $4.95 a month or $39.95 a year. Is there enough demand for CNN Web video to support this?
posted by kokogiak on Mar 29, 2002 - 18 comments

Dear Abby turns in man for attraction to child porn... Granted, child pornography is bad, but was Abby justified in turning the guy over to the police? Will denying him computer access only cause him to seek other, more direct venues of satisfaction?
posted by Poagao on Mar 13, 2002 - 39 comments

"I don't think it's a big problem," Willy told her. "It's a lot of little problems, and I think that's good, because little problems have little solutions." Leave it to a 6-year-old to describe my life far more eloquently than I ever could. I have an autistic son, and deal with the little things on a daily basis. I don't think I am all that unusual; what kind of little things are a part of your life that other people might consider a big problem?
posted by Lokheed on Feb 24, 2002 - 4 comments

Bigots are alive and well in America. Here we are still fighting for equal rights for all Americans. Some will find this link uplifting because of the outpouring of community support, but to me it's just another sign of how quickly intolerance turns to attempted murder.
posted by fleener on Feb 10, 2002 - 54 comments

Al-Jazeera Severs Ties With CNN: Does it strike anyone as particularly rich that Al Jazeera, the Arab television network, decided to sever ties with CNN after CNN broadcast portions of a video showing bin Laden making his least ambiguous statements yet on al Qaeda's alleged involvement in the terrorist attacks of 9/11? [more inside...]
posted by verdezza on Feb 1, 2002 - 3 comments

Fox News overtakes CNN in viewership even though fewer people get Fox News in their households.
posted by mrbula on Jan 30, 2002 - 31 comments

Muslims blast CNN polling techniques. CNN apologizes and offers up an excuse to justify act. But is poll (1) out of place, (2) unjustified, (3) a fair assignment to get some interesting and/or useful information? (4) an overreaction on the part of those who would control what their children should and should not know and see.
posted by Postroad on Dec 20, 2001 - 20 comments

What if London got hit, not us? Just wondering what would be different if London was the primary target.
posted by sadie01221975 on Dec 16, 2001 - 19 comments

CNN going down the tubes A view from writer for San Fransisco Chronicle that appeared in Japanese paper. Other news channels strike me as "sexier," but CNN, still, for many, best bet on worldwide news coverage. Does sexy make more interesting presentation?
posted by Postroad on Nov 17, 2001 - 19 comments

High speed hoax: Taking advantage of a bug in CNN's "mail this story" mechanism, a guy created a hoax page looking like a CNN news story which claimed that Britney Spears had died in a car crash. (She's fine.) He seeded the story by giving it to just three people in a chat room -- and within 12 hours it had been downloaded 150,000 times. The Internet appears to permit extremely efficient distribution of disinformation.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Oct 10, 2001 - 26 comments

A real cancer cure, finally? When I'm in my cups, I like to declaim that "Some of us now living may never die" or stuff of the sort. Is this the real thing? Is the time finally here when enormous jumps in our natural lifespan are going to start happening, at least for the rich? What would you do if you had an extra 20, or 50, or 100 years?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken on Oct 4, 2001 - 28 comments

CNN & FOX: Birds of a feather? In an effort to improve his network's image with conservative leaders, new CNN chief Walter Isaacson huddled with House and Senate GOP leaders last week to seek advice on how to attract more right-leaning viewers to the sagging network.
posted by Rastafari on Aug 5, 2001 - 10 comments

"When I first saw it, I knew it would be as important as Gutenberg." Hyperbole aside, PerfectBook -- a machine that spits out a complete book from a digital file within minutes -- sounds intriguing. What's more, "a distracted teenager could run it."
posted by mw on Jul 9, 2001 - 18 comments

Yes sir, that's my cloned alien baby! I was concerned about this article from cnn about Clonaid going ahead with cloning a human. And then I found out Clonaid was stared by a religious group that believes ETs used genetic engineering to create life on earth. Legitimate news item or bad X-files script? (posted by Miss-Lapin)
posted by miss-lapin on Jul 3, 2001 - 4 comments

I find this very sad... At least they aren't mimicking Eminem.
posted by machaus on Jun 13, 2001 - 18 comments

What do you do when your news company decides to let you go? Why you post a revenge site to mock your former employer.
posted by CRS on Apr 27, 2001 - 12 comments

Bugs eat Paris!
posted by u.n. owen on Apr 4, 2001 - 1 comment

Northpoint shutdown halted... for now. Looks like they'll still be dead in 30 days, though. I wonder how they're going to keep running their network without any employees. [CNN link, deal.]
posted by darukaru on Mar 30, 2001 - 2 comments

Bush will apparently stop holding formal press conferences , instead opting for "informal conversations" with reporters. He promises to be "accessible," but I for one wouldn't be surprised if "informal" began to translate as "ceases to tell the country what he's up to"...
posted by logovisual on Mar 28, 2001 - 27 comments

one, two, three. considering this is the same bunch that put our current resident in the whitehouse, why do i have a bad feeling about this?
posted by bliss322 on Mar 26, 2001 - 35 comments

No men: A night without street crime and domestic abuse! Goodness knows it's about time, but with Australians, Blacks, and Koreans about it's - unfortunately - only a matter of time. Thank you.
posted by holloway on Mar 11, 2001 - 28 comments

Three-dimensional printing's a reality. While this technology will certainly help out mass production, here's the big question: Who will be the first to exploit this technology for odious purposes? And how far are we away from the transporter?
posted by ed on Mar 2, 2001 - 17 comments

Through rose-tinted spectacles? It's media waffle for a quiet news day, and comes on the back of a wave of nostalgia, but Reagan's "victory" in this latest poll feels like the triumph of selective memory, and of the desire to reassociate the presidency with jelly-bean eating. (FDR trails in fifth, and there's no mention of Woodrow Wilson, though Carter and Nixon get a look-in.) Which makes me wonder: does the US have a clear sense of its history, as far as Presidents are concerned?
posted by holgate on Feb 19, 2001 - 15 comments

Another laughable graphic from CNN.com, this time regarding "air rage". Didn't CNN.com just lay off a lot of people? How did this photoshopper not get the boot? Is it actually this hard to get good workers?
posted by jragon on Feb 17, 2001 - 14 comments

Election Night at CNN called 'debacle' by panel -- Well thank you, Captain Obvious! For this they needed a "panel"? To be fair, though, CNN did announce some changes to its election coverage policies ...
posted by shauna on Feb 7, 2001 - 3 comments

What is CNN trying to say with this image? I uploaded it to my web space just in case the image changed at some point during the day. However, if you're quick and visit CNN's website right now, you might just get a glimpse of the least subtle political message this side of "Psst, Vote for me! My dad was president!"
posted by likorish on Nov 17, 2000 - 16 comments

After Microsoft and Napster, Boies tackles Bush. Did anyone catch this? I noticed this morning on NBC that David Boies, who has represented IBM (versus the DOJ), the Yankees, the DOJ (versus Microsoft), and Napster, is now representing Al Gore. Wacky stuff.
posted by daveadams on Nov 15, 2000 - 3 comments

Nobody really cares for the Internet--except...people who can't sleep and need something to do. It has created an undisciplined culture of slothfulness and foolishness that's now a culture of despair. That's James Cramer, erstwhile CEO of TheStreet.com going off in a Fortune.com interview. Granted, his own problems on the Net have been documented ad nauseum, but is there a bit of truth in what he says? .
posted by BoyCaught on Oct 16, 2000 - 10 comments

When captions go bad? It's the one below the first picture.
posted by solistrato on Sep 28, 2000 - 4 comments

This Just In: Computer commits suicide. When headlines go bad.
posted by aaron on Jul 15, 2000 - 11 comments

teens spin web of the future. great article re: the winners of a competition for teenagers maintaining useful, unique, nonprofit sites.

Emily Boyde, 17, of Newcastle, Australia, was the only female finalist. Her Web site, MatMice, allows kids to create their own Web sites and view sites made by their friends.

She taught herself to write HTML, the language used to create Web sites. "I don't know a lot of other females who do this sort of thing," she said. "But after I saw the Internet, I liked the look of it. So I decided to learn to use it myself."

Emily rocks my world.
What do you think of the winners?
posted by gusset on Jun 25, 2000 - 2 comments

An interview with the lawyers from Napster and Metellica. Good points, both.
posted by Mick on May 22, 2000 - 6 comments

I feel bad about posting an Elian Gonzalez link, just because the poor kid has been through enough, but this religious imagery that CNN used in conjuntion with a story is just plain odd.
posted by jkottke on Apr 5, 2000 - 5 comments

I hope my retirement is like this. At least I *hope* I can still enjoy it by then.
posted by plinth on Apr 5, 2000 - 0 comments