Imagine CNN.com Without The "Fluff"

[sabra]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/19/125148/65

SCREW CNN (w/ graphics)
by lokiloki
Thu Oct 19, 2006 at 09:51:48 AM PDT

Which is the worse sin, presenting biased news and commentary, or providing total fluff and non-news and masquerading it as actual news?

CNN HOME PAGE



...

This is what their home page would look like if it was presented with just news:



...

UPDATED: CNN USED to be better... I was browsing the Internet Archive... for some reason the earliest record for CNN is 2000. That's a bit weird. In 1996 and thereabouts CNN was good... and even in 2000, as seen below, it was better. (I like the headline particularly.)

[RobertSeattle]

1. Someone should create a anti-fluff filter

[ArbustoBuster]

4. That's easy.

Redirect cnn.com to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/127.0.0.1">127.0.0.1

:D

[RobertSeattle]

5. I'm a big fan of HOSTS files

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

[salvorhardin]

6. It's called RSS

Most major news sources make RSS feeds available. The BBC, The Guardian and others even divide them into narrow content channels. Using a feed reader you can aggregate your own news sans the fluff. Don't want the "lifestyle" stories? Don't subscribe to them. Plus by using a variety of sources you'll be getting a more accurate picture of the world's events.

Is there one specific type of story or issue you're particularly interested in? Do a search for it on Google News using those search terms you think are most relevant. Your search results will have an RSS feed which you can subscribe to. That way you can be kept up to date on that issue in the news. The same goes for blog posts. If you do a search on Technorati (or blogsearch.google.com) your results will have an RSS feed so you can be kept up to date on what bloggers are saying about your pet issue by subscribing to the feed.

And feed readers are plentiful and usually free. For instance, there's a great feed reader extension for Firefox called Sage but Mozilla's e-mail application Thunderbird has built-in support for Usenet groups as well as RSS feeds. There are also a number of web based feed readers. I particularly like Google Reader but here's a relatively recent article that compares the various web based feed readers: http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/03/30/the-state-of-online-feed-readers

We all like to complain about the perceived dumbing down of the media, and I largely agree with that sentiment. The fact of the matter though is that there are things you can do, and one of them is taking responsibility for your own media habits. In other words, don't be just a mindless consumer of media, don't just take what you're given -- especially when it is so easy these days to do otherwise. With the internet came a vast availability of information across a wide range of media. The challenge was to sort through it and separate the gold from all the dross. RSS and other newer technologies now make that relatively painless.

[SoCalDem]

2. Long before the internet(s), CNN used to be about news

few people know that it originally broadcast from an old HOUSE that Turner bought.. It was just people sitting at desks showing the news..as it happened..

There were no "shows"..no agendas.. just news..from all over..

[jannyk]

3. You mean like today's CNN poll

... "is Harrison Ford tooold to play Indiana Jones?" Oy Vey :crazy:

[valerief]

7. Yes, they are all fluffers. And I mean that in the porn industry

sense.