The siege at that Russian school…Hurricane Frances…renewed violence in Iraq…a couple of security scares at Los Angeles International Airport…there's just too much news today.
They're in Hog Heaven on CNN, careening between big boxes and little boxes, groping for those awkward segues that don't make it sound like they're comparing one tragedy to another. And I'd really like someone to explain to me why, theatrics aside, you can't report on a major storm without sending some poor correspondent and camera crew out into the thick of it to be blown around and rained upon. It's like they're out there just to get first-hand verification that, by God, there really is a hurricane.
While I'm dumping on newsfolks: The other day, the Associated Press reported that when George W. Bush announced to an audience that Bill Clinton had been hospitalized with chest pains, the crowd booed and "Bush did nothing to stop them." (Here's a link to one website's posting of the story.) Early this morning, the A.P. moved this correction which says there were no boos or that the booing was minimal…and indeed, an audio file that has been widely circulated on the Internet would seem to bear that out.
I don't think the press (especially the A.P.) is anywhere near as biased as right-wingers complain any time the news isn't phrased to their liking. But in this case, the original story was not only wrong but the line about Bush doing nothing to stop them was a bit much. I'm glad to see the A.P. corrected themselves and I wish more newsfolks would do that. I don't know about you but when an institution of the press owns up to its mistakes, I am more likely to trust them, not less.