Thursday, February 24

The Fluffy Edition (2#) -

Is PR fluff taking over our news?

The midday TV news gives us a handful of headline stories within the first five or ten minutes. If you arrive late in front of your screen, you're out of luck.

You could sit there like a brainless zombie for the next fifty minutes and never catch a clue about what's going on in the world around you, because they won't repeat the headlines of the major news stories on the half hour, before the end of the program, or ever again. The rest of the hour is like a carnival sideshow.

Earlier today (Wednesday) was a good example of what's been going on lately. Amid stories of Libya in turmoil and an earthquake in New Zealand, the broadcast was interrupted for - cut away! - a courtroom scene featuring Hollywood starlet Lindsay Lohan. And then, Important Haircut News featuring Jennifer Aniston and Justin Bieber. Usually, they fill in the rest of the program with Junk Medicine. What is going on here?

They call it Churnalism in the UK,
which means churning press releases,
:: according to Paul Lewis at The Guardian.

* * * * * *
Over time, Edward Gorey
accumulated a cult following . . .

NPR has a feature piece on
The Strange Case of Edward Gorey written by
Alexander Theroux with an excerpt and comments.

...