CNN - The Most Busted Name in News

I have to post this link from the Huffington Post. This is one of the most insightful and honest posts I have seen about the MSM, CNN in particular, by someone who, until recently worked for them. Chez Pazienza is a blogger for Huffington Post, and was a producer for American Morning on CNN. He was fired for blogging. That is to his and our good fortune because now he is saying what should be said about them and he knows from the inside. In his words:

CNN fired me, and did it without even a thought to the power that I might wield as an average person with a brain, a computer, and an audience. The mainstream media doesn't believe that new media can embarrass them, hurt them or generally hold them accountable in any way, and they've never been more wrong.

I'm suddenly in a position to do all three, and I know now that this is what I've been working toward the last few years of my career.

This part sounds more sour grapes than it actually is, you have to read the post to see. CNN is the cable news network I love to hate. I hate them all, but I have CNN on most of the day, backgrounding while I'm doing other things. They are a prime example of what is wrong with the MSM and what is wrong with television news.

But what really cracks me up is their recent clumsy attempts to adopt new media. As if it were something they invented. Now they are all bloggers. Wolf Blitzer, Jack Cafferty and Anderson Cooper, who live blogs during the commercial breaks. Give me a break. They are starting to figure out that the world is changing and that occasional blog reports from their Internet reporters and email from their audience isn't enough to compete for the attention of young people who are more comfortable with new media than traditional cable news.

Rather than promoting their blogs with every spare moment they have and telling us how trusted they are and how they are the best team of reporters, blah, blah, blah; they could start giving us real news. Stop sensationalizing everything. Stop giving us the Britney Spears and the Paris Hilton news, or from today's headlines it's Lindsay Lohan in a nude photo shoot tribute to Marilyn Monroe. If they did real news, they would never need to tell us how trusted they are, or that they are the best. It wouldn't be necessary. Now thanks the Chez Pazienza, they may soon be known as the Most Busted Name in News.
Rock on Chez!

-Fight the powers.