I'm about to go out of town, so I'm writing this super fast. But I was watching CNN Headline news at 6:25 a.m. this morning, and they introduced a piece on Valerie Plame's lawsuit. I am, predictably if you've read me, in favor of her lawsuit, but I'm also legal minded enough to be interested in whether it has chances in court or not. So I wanted to hear it.
Instead of any news I got this garbage-y, cutesy piece narrated by Jeanne Moos (the cow goes moo, so does Jeanne) that intercut the "glamorous" Valerie with clips of James Bond, and Austin Powers, and Diana Rigg as Emma Peel, and Greta Garbo in the 30s movie "Mata Hara" walking to the firing squad... the intercutting was obsessive, and made the supposed point that Valerie was attractive, and that spies in movies are attractive, and seemingly had NO OTHER CONTENT than this. And it seemed to think that we, the viewers, should be amused by this. (The tone was as if the reporter was covering a dog show where the dogs dressed up as show girls. Vast amusement.)
I mean, if it was a half hour piece on Valerie Plame, and they wanted to insert two minutes of this playfulness in the middle, that would be acceptable. I like to see clips of Greta Garbo.
But when it's the ONLY content in what is actually a serious story, it makes me want to puke.
The mainstream media sucks.
By the way, I've not heard of Jeanne Moos, but according to Wikipedia: "Jeanne Moos is a national news correspondent for CNN. She is based out of the network's studios in New York City. ... In the 1990s, Moos began to report on very unusual and off-beat stories, which is her current trademark. In 1995 she began a series of reports called "Making The MOOSt Of It." Today Moos continues to report on the most unusual and quirky stories of the day for CNN."
Dear Jeanne (assuming you were behind the style and lack of content in your piece and not just the narrator): there are some lightweight, meaningless stories that making the MOOSt out of are probably fine. This wasn't one of them.
Must the mainstream media continue to disgrace itself? As well as treat us as idiots, and help turn us into idiots?
Finally - why has no one except an Aspen newspaper and various blogs reported on Bill Clinton's remarks on Karl Rove that someone should ask Rove how he would have reacted if someone in Clinton's administration had outed a CIA undercover operative?
That's not newsworthy? But this crap from Jeanne Mooooos is???