Friday, September 10, 2010

Politico Sinks to New Low in Non-News Reporting

The main stream media has been receiving a lot of harsh criticism over the last couple of years, decades maybe, for using bad news judgement, most of it well deserved. Politico just beat the crap out of them by sinking to the bottom of the cesspool.

Are these non-entities serious? Where is the news worthiness in this banal non-news story? Has all judgement been flushed down the toilet? Another time of the year, I would think it was an April Fools joke or that I had landed at the Onion by mistake - or at Fox News.

In what is undoubtedly the most inane news story I have ever had the misfortune of reading, reporters

Patrick Gavin and Amie Parnes (requires two to write this garbage?) take the president to task for - hold your breath - going ringless at today's "presser." Oh my God! Rates right up there with jobs and medical research don't it?

Sometimes, a White House press conference can be a chance for a president to take some weight off his shoulders ... but weight off his fingers?

Eagle-eyed reporters noticed that President Barack Obama wasn't sporting his wedding ring during Friday's White House press conference.

"big to-do over potus not wearing his wedding ring today," Tweeted The Hill's Sam Youngman, who was at the presser.
Presser? Please, somebody tell me this is a joke. I actually read this piece of shiitake three times to make sure I wasn't missing something. The comments indicated it was meant as an honest-to-God news story.

Jim in Houston:  Which ring, the one for his finger or the one in his nose? Big Meshell leads him around like a dog on a leash.
MAC59: He is probably getting it adapted to fit in his nose. 

maxovrdriv: I just figured he wanted his favorite verse from the Quran put on it.
But this conservative says it best:

zjak10: BFD! I mean who the heck cares, really?
So, why do I care? I don't.

11 comments:

  1. Stop the presses! I have a confession of epic proportions to make! In the 35 years I've been married, I probably wore my wedding band for the first 3 years.
    Being a nurse who did constant handwashing, it became a problem to have rings on.
    Even though I no longer do nursing, I have not put my ring back on because it doesn't fit!
    This is the best reporting they can come up with?!?

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  5. I seem to be in competition with TAO on the number of comments I post and then have to delete.

    I'm having trouble leaving comments here. When I hit the publish button, nothing happens, but then I see I've sent several comments to the board.

    Comment gnomes?

    Anyway re this post.

    I tried to leave this comment:

    Trivial minds write about trivial things.

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  6. Rocky: My hubby never wore the one I gave him - maybe signifying he didn't care for that marriage? I always wore my beautiful diamond ring - maybe to pretend that I was happy in that marriage? So, what's in a symbol? ;-)

    Shaw: Leaving a comment here seems to be taking more time than usual - it's a Blogger thing I'm sure. Once you hit the publish button, don't hit it again. If you don't have time to wait, minimalize it. I think that'll take care of TAO's and your problem.

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  7. I've been having Comment Hate with Blogger this week, too. Google is overstretched, methinks.

    As to that big news scoop, we need to sic Octo on 'em. Journalism has gone as nuts within its own sphere as the nation has in this era. It's Big Transition Time, folks. Spare us the zoom focus.

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  8. The bigger our problems become the shallower and more distracted the coverage.

    Without a blond, blue-eyed toddler tumbled down a well we're stuck with this bit of non-news and weeks of Pastor Terry Jones.

    Do journalism schools teach anything beyond holding a microphone and uttering the words "back to you (fill in the blank) or tweeting?

    Or do journalism schools still exist?

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  9. Arthurstone - I've just come across a few articles about this. High school journalism classes are in trouble as funds that support them are being yanked. College courses seem to be safe but are slanting more toward the electronic side of it. In both cases the demise of the newspaper industry is have a negative impact.

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  10. Slow news week?

    Lets see, the president is off making speeches, some idiot wants to burn a bunch of Korans, and we have high unemployment and high poverty....

    Lets see fires in what four different states....

    Oh a million and one topics for a story...

    But we go with the wedding ring...

    Of course all of those would involve research and work....

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  11. Exactly. I was speechless when I saw this.

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