Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Why Comedy Central Wins Broadcast News

Today I heard about Tom Delay and Cynthia McKinney from all the major news orgs. Whether it was PBS, NPR or even Pacifica, I heard about them this morning as I was driving to work, and this evening as I was coming home. Over and over again, stories regarding Mr. Delay and Ms. McKinney dominated the day's news.

After the first five times I heard it, there was little more to learn. But that didn't stop the speculation and repetition. It seemed, beyond the occasional mention of Katie Couric or some obscure basketball tournament being held, there was little else to report.

However, the *only* time I heard about how the EPA is now listing water hazards at golf courses as wetlands was on The Colbert Report. I didn't hear about it anywhere else. Not once. I had to Google the topic later to find a story from Tuesday's Palm Beach Post. But it was nowhere on the broadcast news. Doesn't it seems to be an important issue during this year of record setting weather conditions?

Oh, and The Colbert Report followed a rather excellent interview with Studs Terkel on The Daily Show, where the grand old man reminded us all that it's okay to tell the President to "Bugger Off".

Oh, and *that* followed an interview between Jon Stewart and John McCain where Mr. Stewart asked you know, real questions about what the Senator is doing today. Questions along the lines of "What? Have you lost your mind?"

So if anybody is wondering, maybe the people are turning to a comedy channel to get their news because there is actually more news on the comedy channel. This is a poor reflection on the producers of the news, but *not* the consumers, and I don't think the producers get it. Until they do, they are destined to fail, and they deserve it.

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