CNN - The National Inquirer of Cable News

This weekend my family and I were sitting in our motel room in Anaheim eating breakfast and getting ready for a day of fun filled adventure at Disneyland. The television channel selection was limited. I was flippin through the channels looking for some news when I discovered that the only news channel available to me was CNN.

I don't normally watch CNN but I figured it couldn't hurt for a few minutes. Boy was I wrong. So while we waited for the kids to finish dressing we watched CNN do a special on the couple different relief organizations that were working in Louisiana to help rescue any lost or displaced pets in the area. The showed people rescueing cats and dogs, donating pet food, and cleaning up rescued. My twins ohhed and ahhed over the cute kittens and the puppies that they saw. My eldest daughter's liked the kittens too but she wanted to know what about the people who needed help?

Well CNN answered her question because with only a two miniute commercial break as a segue the left the topic of rescueing animals to showing us several graphic pictures of several of the dead bodies in New Orleans. The first shot was of two bodies lying end to end and the announcer had to verbally call our attention to the massive cranial damage suffered by both victims. Then, while I'm trying to simultaneously set down my hot coffee, yell at my kids not to look, and grab the remote to change channels they show an elderly woman in a wheel chair with a blanket tossed over her.

Thanks CNN, just the kind of news coverage we need to see over breakfast. The only thing that saved us a lot of questions from our kids was that we left for Disneyland a couple minutes later and the forgot all about the TV.

This was truely trash journalisim at it's worst. CNN did a whole segment on rescuing animals and didn't show a single dead pet. Whats' wrong CNN couldn't find that suitable bloated corpse of a beagle to start your morning show with? But when CNN is done talking about pets and decide to move onto talking about humans do we see video of people helping each other, No. So we see pictures of of people trying to get by in horrible circumstances, no. Do we see the thousands of volunteers who have set aside their normal lives to help those who need it, No. Do we see engineers working on pumps, or firemen putting our fires, or police patroling neighborhoods, No. We get to see dead bodies.

I know that death and dying are a part of disasters like huricane Katrina. I have seen my share of dead bodies in person. I don't choose to see them on television and I certainly don't choose to have my children exposed to such dispicable tabloid journalism.

CNN's rating have been plummetting for a couple years now. If they would like to know why they can stop blaming Fox News and start looking inside. They have become the National Inquirer of Cable News.

Then today I find out that CNN filed suit in U.S District Court to make sure that they get access to the body recovery efforts in New Orleans. So get ready folks CNN looks like it is going to become the Corpse News Network.

Thanks to Confederate Yankee for the tip on the CNN lawsuit. He also has a link to a CNN feedback for if you want to let them know exactly what you think of their trash journalism. I did.