This morning – while I was heading to work, CBS News (the network who brought us Walter Cronkite, Don Hewitt, Dan Rather and Edward R Murrow.) decided to interrupt my phone call to inform me that “Lindsay Lohan Sent to Jail After Failing Drug Test.”
Really? This is news? Apparently on CBS. Which is why CBS News has been banished from my phone. I can care less about Lindsay Lohan, he inability to stay off drugs OR switch urine with a member of her entourage.
Later, it was reported that the House judicial committee invited Stephen Colbert to testify, in character, about his experience picking vegetables for 10 hours. The reasoning – Colbert could bring more national attention to his issue than it otherwise would have received. It was a PR stunt? A congressman needs to bring an overpaid Hollywood actor into an official government meeting as a way of getting coverage?
At a country, we are more interested in being entertained by our press than being educated. CBS News has figured this out and is profiting. When someone looks back on us, they will point to moments like this to explain our slow slide into mediocrity.
Finding Nilay 