Every day, more and more stories of voting problems in OH, FL, NC, and NH trickle in. Urban voters in OH had to wait in line for 12 hours in some places simply to take advantage of their constitutional right to cast a ballot. Marines are being killed left in right in Fallujah, where all the "insurgents" (I would call them fed-up Iraqi citizens) seem to have simply picked up and left.
The man the President of the United States has appointed to the Office of the Attorney General believes that the US has the right to disregard major portions of the Geneva Convention. The President's choice to head up the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee believes that women should find relief for PMS through praying and reading the Bible. Arlen Specter (remember when he used to be part of the FAR right?) is catching hell from the Born-Again Right for suggesting that the Senate Judiciary Committee will be hard-pressed to confirm any Supreme Court Justice with an eye to overturning Roe v. Wade.
ANWR is back on the menu for the Republicans in Congress. In the biggest survey ever of the arctic climate, 250 scientists warned that global warming is heating the Arctic almost twice as fast as the rest of the planet in a thaw that threatens millions of livelihoods and could wipe out polar bears by 2100.
Yet, if you check out CNN.com today. These are the stories you will see amongst its top stories:
Moore to shoot sequel to 'Fahrenheit'
Princess Anne's jet involved in 'air proximity incident'
Diaz, Timberlake defend paparazzi tiff as 'self-defense'
and under the U.S. News section:
Florida court changes adoption rules
Troopers gave NASCAR driver copter ride
And don't forget the major stories under their "Politics" section:
Edwards' breast cancer not spread
and
Security planned for inauguration
Oooohh. Breaking news indeed. Turn on your TV set and I would be remiss to mention all the coverage of the Scott Peterson trial. "Another juror dismissed! Stop the presses!"
Yes, some of the stories I've mentionned above, like the battle in Fallujah, are being covered. And I guess, to be fair, CNN did run a piece on global warming on Nov. 9, the day it came out. But I would think such a massive report on the deteriorating state of our climate would merit more than one day's worth of copy.
As a journalism major who was required to take classes in both media ethics and the media's responsibility to report in the public interest, I am continually appalled (thought not shocked) by CNN's metamorphisis into something that resembles a cross between Court TV and Access Hollywood.
So I, for one, am calling for a boycott of CNN and CNN.com. I might even get a TIVO just so that whatever Big Brother company that monitors what I'm watching can see that I'm NOT watching CNN. Give me MSNBC any day. At least they have Keith Olbermann.