Premature journalistic ejaculation
I've never been a big fan of news channels, because I always feel that the news is condescending to me. They report shit to us that they feel is the most interesting, regardless of what is more important. Yesterday Kosovo declared its indepedence, which was at the front of The Economist, yet it was hidden in the World section of CNN, behind some celebrity bullshit I don't remember on the front page.
I do go to CNN for political information, as I'm curious about the Democratic primaries. They try to keep it up to date, and it sometimes bothers me less than other American news sites. At the time of this writing, they were declaring Obama the projected winner of Wisconsin. Then I looked at the actual data for Wisconsin.
5% had reported results.
Yet at the front of the page, it says in gigantic letters, "Obama and McCain win Wisconsin primaries, CNN projects"
This premature journalistic ejaculation is just ridiculous. I feel like they are being insulting and condescending, not to mention a little elitist by declaring somebody the winner when 95% of the fucking state has yet to report their results.
Does this bother anybody else, or am I just becoming a crotchety old man?
I do go to CNN for political information, as I'm curious about the Democratic primaries. They try to keep it up to date, and it sometimes bothers me less than other American news sites. At the time of this writing, they were declaring Obama the projected winner of Wisconsin. Then I looked at the actual data for Wisconsin.
5% had reported results.
Yet at the front of the page, it says in gigantic letters, "Obama and McCain win Wisconsin primaries, CNN projects"
This premature journalistic ejaculation is just ridiculous. I feel like they are being insulting and condescending, not to mention a little elitist by declaring somebody the winner when 95% of the fucking state has yet to report their results.
Does this bother anybody else, or am I just becoming a crotchety old man?
Comments
Prude.
Schadenfreude is another awesome word, even if it is a loan word from Germany.
Now, if they call one of the closer states (Texas, Ohio, etc) that early, then we certainly have something to be suspicious about. But I think that they've more or less learned their lesson since 2000.
Now, if they would only stop being so condescending and declaring winners in their editorial analysis...
They're still motivated to produce the news first, to get more viewers, because sadly, news is a business. And that is exactly what happened in 2000, so I hope you're right in that they learned their lesson.
Well, I'll pay attention in some of the really close states and see how they report that.
Oh yeah, I'm back. More or less for good. AND STRAIGHT BACK ON THE HORSE WITH HIGHLY SKILLED POLITICAL HUMOUR.
Need I say more?
But how much coverage will the next UK election get in America? Almost none.
I didn't know UK had elections. They're trying to be like us! How cute!
That's a really good point. World news is very hard to come by, because it takes a backseat to Lindsay Lohan naked photos or something, or to occasional stuff about that damn idiot rich white girl who went missing in Aruba back many years ago, when of course we take a breath in between primaries and caucuses. When we do report world news, it is 98% Middle East bombings.
To learn more about the outside world, you have to make real effort to do so.
But we have ALWAYS been at war with Oceania! There's no reason to know anything about the outside world, other than that it wants to kill you and your family!!