That's not The Cable Gamer saying that--that's the headline from Matthew Felling's post at CBS News' "Public Eye" blog.
I report, you decide, about Felling's lede:
So have you heard there’s going to be a Democratic debate tonight? And one with normal people like you and me posing questions via streaming video? You haven’t? Just turn on CNN. Chances are you’ll find out before the next commercial break.
And he continues, citing the words of Jon Friedman of MarketWatch, as Friedman made the case that Wolf Blitzer was fishing for sensational soundbytes and trying to grab a few extra eyeballs, at the expense of a probing interview:
Lately, CNN has stretched the definition of news to a nearly incomprehensible level. What has genuine news value and what is a thinly veiled ratings grab? CNN may have plenty of company here, but I expect a lot from this network.
That was Friedman. Now here's more from Felling:
I wasn’t quite with Friedman back then, figuring that a conversation about health care was about as good as you’re gonna get in the dog days of summer. But today’s advance coverage of CNN’s YouTube debate hasn’t just jumped the shark – it passed that marker an hour ago – it’s gone all-out “Buckwheat is Shot”
A bit of background, there was a skit on “Saturday Night Live” back in the 1980s satirizing the media’s overkill following the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. In the skit, they had Eddie Murphy’s Buckwheat get shot, with the point of the skit being that the media was so enthralled by the footage, that they’d look for any attempt to replay it – going so far as to ask the doctor operating on Buckwheat “Excuse me, Doctor. Have you seen the video of Buckwheat getting shot?”
Thus far today on CNN and its affiliate Headline News (as I write this at 10:34am, EDT) there have been 44 reports about the YouTube/CNN debate, according to TVEyes.com. (>DING< there’s another one with Tony “It’s groundbreaking!” Harris interviewing someone who posed a question – we’re up to 45 now.) They’ve got a countdown clock in the corner and everything.
As noted, I transcribe, you decide.
