Thursday, July 22, 2010

Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

-- John Rogers, from the blog Kungfu Monkey

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Financial reform and news coverage

Today President Obama signed into US law the most sweeping financial reform legislation since the Great Depression. Love it or hate it, it's a big deal. So about an hour ago, I checked some major news network websites to see what their top story was. Here they are:

CNN: USDA official's firing
NBC: USDA official's firing
CBS: USDA official's firing
ABC: Facebook CEO Zuckerberg Sits Down With Diane Sawyer (seriously, ABC?)
Fox: USDA official's firing
BBC: Obama signs financial reform law

Finally! I found a major news network website covering this legislation as their top story. Of course, it's a British website. Yeah, the news networks here are that pathetic.

Most of the networks are focused on the lady from the USDA who was fired after professional scumbag Andrew Breitbart released a deceptively out of context video clip portraying her as a racist. Surprise, surprise, Breitbart was full of crap. However, why is this story the lead? What impact will it have on the rest of us? The answer is none. None at all. On the other hand the financial reform law has the potential to affect all of us in some way in the years to come, even if we're not aware of it.

As for the ABC News site, I have no idea what they're thinking. Sawyer talks to Zuckerberg? That's your lead story, guys? Wow. Their second story is "Glenn Beck fires back at ABC News Goldline investigation". I can't even find any mention of the financial reform law anywhere on the main page of their website. Nothing.

So what's the best network news site for delivering American news stories that actually matter? The BBC. What's wrong with this picture?