TERRI SCHIAVO IS DYING! HER TUBE’S BEEN REMOVED, FOR GODSSAKES! THE SCHINDLERS ARE UPSET! HERE THEY ARE, BEING UPSET! MORE ON THAT IN A MINUTE! ALSO, WHAT’S UP WITH THAT MICHAEL SCHIAVO? WHY DOES HE WANT HER TO DIE!!!?? the US military killed a couple dozen of its prisoners in Iraq, by the way, and - OHMYGOD - MICHAEL JACKSON’S WEARING PAJAMAS!! THE MAN’S WEARING PAJAMAS TO COURT! HAVE YOU EVER HEARD SUCH A THING? WHAT THE HELL IS HE THINKING? MEANWHILE, TERRI SCHIAVO’S PARENTS ARE STILL PRETTY UPSET, AND WE’RE GONNA TALK TO A WORLD RENOWNED PHRENOLOGIST WHO SAYS SHE’S AS CONSCIOUS AS YOU AND ME! STAY TUNED!
WE’RE BACK, AND TERRI’S NOT GONNA LAST MUCH LONGER! some Native America kid just shot up a school. Lotsa dead Indians - OH MAN! TERRI’S PARENTS ARE APPEALING THE DECISION! MAYBE SHE’LL LIVE! YOU KNOW, IT’S REALLY GREAT THAT WE’RE HELPING AMERICA GET A DIALOG GOING ABOUT END OF LIFE ISSUES! NOT TO TOOT OUR OWN HORN, BUT… WHOA! APPEAL DENIED - WOULDJA LOOK AT THAT? WE’LL HAVE OUR LEGAL CONSULTANT IN HERE SOON TO TALK ABOUT EVERYTHING BUT THE ISSUE THAT THE COURTS HAVE BASED THEIR DECISIONS ON, BECAUSE THAT’S KIND OF BORING! BUT WAIT - MICHAEL JACKSON WAS LATE TO COURT AGAIN, AND THIS TIME HE BROUGHT A DOCTOR WITH HIM!! IS THAT GUY NUTS OR WHAT? A bomb killed a bunch of people in Beirut, and 4 American soldiers got blown up by a mine in Afghanistan AND RANDALL TERRY SAYS MICHAEL SCHIAVO’S A MURDERING ADULTERER!! WHOA!! WHAT’S MICHAEL SCHIAVO’S RESPONSE? NOTHING! UNLIKE TERRI’S PARENTS, HE WON’T TALK TO US, SO MAYBE SOMETHING’S UP WITH THAT!! WE’LL BE RIGHT BACK!
huh. a commission says that all our pre-war intelligence was ridiculous poppycock. imagine that. THE POPE’S DYING!! PROBABLY FOR REAL THIS TIME!! IS IT CONNECTED TO TERRI SCHIAVO? SOME PEOPLE SAY “YES!” IT’S AT LEAST IRONIC, IT BEING KIND OF EASTER AND ALL!! WILL EITHER OF THEM PULL THROUGH!?!? the price of oil is approaching 60 bucks a barrel - TERRI TERRI TERRI POPE POPE TERRI TERRI!!!!! TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR TERRI SCHIAVO!! A PRIZE-WINNING PRESTIDIGITATOR SAYS SHE’S ACTUALLY FULLY AWARE AND WORKING ON HER PHD!!! BACK TO THE COURTS!! SPEAKING OF COURTS, MICHAEL JACKSON’S ACCUSER’S BROTHER SAYS HE SAW IT ALL!! BUT IS THE LYING SUMNABITCH CREDIBLE OR IS THE PERV INNOCENT? the US is selling fighter planes to a muslim military dictatorship (so’s China). India’s being a bunch of soreheads about it and - JESUS CHRIST IT LOOKS LIKE TERRI’S ON HER LAST LEGS!! Y’KNOW, SHE WAS SENSITIVE ABOUT HER APPEARANCE SO SHE’D PROBABLY HATE ALL THIS COVERAGE!! WE’RE GONNA TALK TO A NOBEL PRIZE NOMINATED PLUMBER WHO SAYS THAT TERRI JUST NEEDS AN OIL CHANGE!! BUT -
SHE’S DEAD! TERRI’S DEAD! AND THE POPE’S DEAD TOO!! OH MY GOD, WHO SAW THAT COMING!? NOT US! insurgents launched a couple of assaults on Abu Ghraib prison, killing and injuring dozens, and this might be related to that ‘US killed a lot of prisoners’ thingie - OH SWEET MOTHER OF MERCY, TERRI’S STILL DEAD, THE POPE’S DEAD, AND MICHAEL JACKSON LOOKS LIKE HE’S NOT EATING!!! TIME TO CHOOSE A NEW POPE, BUT FIRST THERE’S A GIANT FUNERAL AND A SILVER HAMMER AND WHAT WOULD TERRI THINK ABOUT ALL THIS!!?? WE’LL TALK TO A WELL-RESPECTED CHRISTIAN UNICYCLIST WHO SAYS THAT TERRI’S DEATH PROVES THAT WE NEED A NATIONAL ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE AMENDMENT, AFTER THESE MESSAGES…





42 comments
Trackback from Blogula Rasa - Adam Felber: The Past Two Weeks of TV News
April 4, 2005 at 7:13 pm
Trackback from American On Line - Media Run by Morons
April 4, 2005 at 7:16 pm
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April 5, 2005 at 12:59 pm
Trackback from rdmsoft.com Blog - The Past Two Weeks of (UK) TV News
April 5, 2005 at 5:04 pm
Mary
April 4, 2005 at 3:53 pm
1Thank Lobster someone is concerned about the *real* news- instead of all that war, insurgency, global warming silliness and the like.
Please make it go away!!!!! My head really, really hurts and I haven’t even started banging it against the wall yet.
Where’s a reaper cushion when you need one.
Murray
April 4, 2005 at 4:00 pm
2Yup, there you have it. All the news that isn’t. (or is that “All the news that fits the print”).
So, Bill Mahr asks why do the 24 Hour news shows spend all day on one or two meaningless issues?
Answer (I forget who): They have 24 hours to fill, so they need to fill it with something.
Uhh.. If you have 24 hours to fill why does it have to be filled with nothing, when there is so much else to cover?
*Blank stare* (Those with brains aren’t watching this crap.)
norbizness
April 4, 2005 at 4:09 pm
3That sounds about right, if you just remove the small print (except for the school shooting) altogether.
Laurie D. T. Mann
April 4, 2005 at 4:56 pm
4What was this about how we had to have a “culture of life?”
lovable liberal
April 4, 2005 at 5:19 pm
5What’s wrong with you? Don’t you like your bread and circuses?
Amber
April 4, 2005 at 5:41 pm
6The really sad thing is that I didn’t even hear about most of the stuff that happened in the middle east these past two weeks.
Serge
April 4, 2005 at 6:13 pm
7Just imagine for a second that you are the cook in charge of a royal wedding and you are told 3 days ahead that it happens on saturday instead of friday…
And you thought _you_ had problems ?
Skerlnik
April 4, 2005 at 6:17 pm
8Serge,
Hey, this is English food we are talking about, here. Like anyone could tell if a scone is stale.
(turning off the 24/7 Pope-A-Thon on CNN…)
ginny
April 4, 2005 at 6:42 pm
9Michael Jackson for Pope. The position is open, after all.
He’s already got the fancy spangly outfits.
He’s already got the moves.
He’s already got the legal representation lined up.
Jonathan
April 4, 2005 at 7:25 pm
12You obviously are not reading that tiny crawl underneath the wall to wall picture of Terry, Michael and the Pope. Also, check out the back pages of your local newspaper if you are interested in such mundane affairs as war, economic and environmental disasters and other such distractions.
Bob
April 4, 2005 at 7:27 pm
13Serge -
I don’t know how tough it’ll be to delay the ceremony one day, but I’m sure the Olive Garden will be willing to reschedule the reception.
-=e=-
April 4, 2005 at 8:16 pm
14Oh… so you noticed that too.
Hilarious, man!!!!
Katie
April 4, 2005 at 9:43 pm
15Adam:
OK, so maybe it was print news instead of TV news, but….
YOUR MOTHER HAS A PHENOMINAL NEW BOOK OUT!!!!!
Buddy, you are darned lucky you aren’t my son, as you’d have already received a whop upside the head for missing that little tidbit! Ask Michael, (my son, not your brother) those whops hurt! (not to mention they work really well to ‘jog the memory’)
Harold
April 4, 2005 at 9:51 pm
16What’s this about Afghanistan? I thought we solved everything there months ago with the elections and whatnot. Must be an old story.
Michael Jackson can’t become the Pope. To be eligible you must be an unmarried male Catholic. Michael Jackson fails on at least two of those points, so he’s not eligible to become Pope.
I, on the other hand, am.
David
April 4, 2005 at 10:10 pm
17Thank godster we no longer have to endure actual journalists talking about things of real import which actually affect our lives, our planet, and our future, like I did when I was young.
Escapism, it isn’t just for brief respites from reality any more.
Mostly, thank Adamster for a hell of a good laugh - painful, to be sure, but soooooooo helpful in the quest for sanity in a truly insane age. And thank you, Capitol Steps, for “Rill O’Beilly, the Box News Fraudcaster.”
tess
April 5, 2005 at 2:45 am
18Why bother reading the news or watching it on tv when I’ve got Adam, atrios, norbizness, and pandagon? If I were watching tv news, I’m sure I’d be trying to drain the fluid from my brains using a vacuum cleaner by now.
Skerlnik: Who can tell if scones are stale if they’ve been in the freezer for the past 8 months? Those puppies LAST.
merkley???
April 5, 2005 at 4:07 am
19What do you call a dead Pope?
NOPE!
I just made that up. What’s so gad durn hilarious about it is that it’s both the punchline and the response to your WRONG answer. I’m a genius. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA Hooo HAAAAA!
HA!
You will tell that joke to someone else. i guarantee it.
Pete in Van Diemen's Land
April 5, 2005 at 7:22 am
20Hey, cut the scone bashing right wing rhetoric. You don’t put scones in a freezer, you eat ‘em hot and slathered with jam and fresh real cow’s cream not out of a can. (The jam & cream go on the scones, of course).
Sounds like the Vatican is the place for you, pilgrim. Ha. They were talking on NPR about setting up 30,000 camp beds in Rome for all the folks getting turned away from the inns. Makes you wonder who’s bought the rights to the new Pope-ination? ABC? NBC? CBS? Naaah, it’s not saleable, let’s stick with the dross.
About a year back I started teaching myself Arabic. And I started reading Time, etc, frack to bunt. It makes for much more interesting reading. Go on, try it!
Vinft
April 5, 2005 at 8:56 am
21Here is some more news that is being ignored. As I write, a gigantic mock terrorist attack is being executed here on the East coast. Word is, that DHS knew all about it, and it is rumored that there were memos about it that might have actually filtered all the way up into the Oval Office. If they won’t even heed the warnings of an easily preventable mock terrorist attack, what hope do we have of stopping the real thing? Or is ignoring the intellegence part of the drill also?
Skerlnik
April 5, 2005 at 12:06 pm
22“Let he who is without sin cast the first stale, frozen scone”…
Hey, isn’t there a war on the Iroquois, or something?
I think both COngress and the media are in a “persistent vegetative state”.
Ooh, new Dem slogan for ‘08!:
“Remove the feeding tube from the Neocon Regime! Vote Democratic!”
owen
April 5, 2005 at 1:42 pm
24I’ve always known that a news channel that shows advertisements every 15 minutes can never be trusted
Jerry
April 5, 2005 at 2:00 pm
25Michael Jackson AND the Pope? A natural, especially since I heard one of the solemn journalists covering the trucking-around of the Pope’s corpse hither and yon (accompanied by halberd-eqipped Swiss Guardsmen…I kept worrying they were going to spit and roast him!), say, “I think John Paul II will be remembered for all the young people he touched.”
And it doesn’t matter what you call a dead Pope…he won’t come anyway!
ABM
April 5, 2005 at 2:24 pm
26CNN need to be renamed Popotivion and it’s Popetastic!! Seriously the day Terri Schaivo dies the ticker actually matched what was happening on the screen. Amazing that there was no other news in the entire world. Jeebus and the Great Lobster weep.
Oh and Lovable Liberal - that’s such a slander on Bread and Circus. I mourned the day they shut the festival down. I used to go every year and camp out in the fields with the rest of the hippies. What a wonderful sense of belonging.
Jerry
April 5, 2005 at 3:24 pm
27Owen - television news died the day the FCC changed the rules on news. When I was a kid, news was commercial-free, a “public service” requirement for the stations and networks to use OUR public airwaves. Allowing them to sell commercials during the news almost immediately changed the content, professionalism and responsibility of TV news.
Now I’m not so naive as to think that big advertisers on other segments couldn’t lean on them to “shape” the news, but it was a lot better. We saw the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam up close and personal. What do you see about Iraq, world hunger, and the genocides that are taking more lives than the Holocost?
It’s kind of easy to suspect (and I DO) the motives of “news” organizations kowtowing to the Administration. But what we are seeing I believe, is the simple desire to cater to the interests and intellectual level of their viewers to sell more Ab-Crunchers and Sweetie-Treatie Cereal. When in print the ‘National Enquirer’ is fantastically successful, one would hardly expect TV “journalism” to stick to hard news and detailed analyses when that just drops ratings and revenues.
ginny
April 5, 2005 at 5:46 pm
29I hate it when we are mocked by terrorists.
Pete in Van Diemen's Land
April 5, 2005 at 6:52 pm
30Owen & Jerry - I couldn’t agree more.
In VDL, we have something like 30 national and regional commercial teevee stations, and 2 public broadcasters, ABC and SBS. All the commercial stations are linked with local newspapers and websites, so if you can’t read the newspaper of your choice, or you don’t understand the Lobster-bedamned Internet, you can sit in front of the TFeeding tube and get your pap in sponsored technicolour. (Sorry, Technicolor). She Who Must Be Obeyed was raised on the commercial stations, whereas I grew up in the bush, where only ABC had transmitters. Guess who watches what in the house?
Luckily, I just bought one of them new-fangled TV tuners for my computer, and I can (and did!) delete all the commercial stations from the channel list! Woo-Hoo! Perhaps I should remoniker myself The Mole? Anyway, it makes channel surfing SO easy! I don’t know why I wrote all this. I’ll just crawl away now and watch the world go by…
Oh, I just heard a quaint thing. Apparently, Americans call biscuits “cookies” (from the Dutch word for little cakes), and call scones biscuits! Isn’t the world whacky?
Skerlnik
April 5, 2005 at 7:27 pm
31Ha, Pete, we Americans name things differently, because we CAN! I think it was an obscure clause in the Monroe Doctrine (you know, the document wherein we grant ourselves Western Hemispheric hegemony), that we have the self-given right to call crisps “chips”, chips “fries”, biscuits “cookies”, lifts “elevators”, scones “biscuits” and act as if everyone else is stupid.
So, you over there in VDL best watch yourselves. Either you take that U out of “colour” and “flavour” right now, or we might have to regime-change yer ass! The American People no longer require a “good reason” or “just cause” anymore.
We’ll just call it “The War On Terrour”…
Jay
April 5, 2005 at 8:27 pm
32Slightly Off Topic:
Is anyone else amused by the fact that Shrub, who signed 144 death warrants and started an unprovoked war, is attending the funeral of John Paul who opposed both the death penalty and the war in Iraq?
Hmmmmm…..
Jim
April 5, 2005 at 8:55 pm
33Skerlnik and Pete VDL,
Here is a link to a piece (falsely) attributed to John Cleese, as well as a rebuttal that has been floating around cyberspace.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/revocation.asp
Mildly amusing, and to (slightly) remain on topic a bit of news that, if it were true, CNN et al just might gloss over in favo(u)r of The Michael Jackson Trial of the Century.
Jerry
April 5, 2005 at 9:16 pm
34Bonnets “hoods,” lorries “trucks,” fancy “lust.”
“Two people divided by a common language,” indeed!
(Russel, Shaw, Churchill, Twain depending on where you look. My money is on Shaw)
Jay - Amused? Well, sorta. And by the fact that this hero of the fall of COMMUNISM, also wrote extensively on the evils of unbridled, crony, Godless CAPITALISM!
hedera
April 5, 2005 at 11:57 pm
35I haven’t watched TV news in years; I think the last time was on Sept. 11, 2001, and then I didn’t turn on the TV, the other techies rigged a coat-hanger into an antenna for the VCR in the conference room. Before that I think the last time I turned on a TV was the 1992 election. I get my news from the Economist (I like the outsider’s view of U.S. politics), and review the S.F. Chronicle for local scandals.
Pete, I can’t imagine why reading Time etc. backward would make a difference. They aren’t covering VDL in any case. And I hope you don’t believe what they say about the U.S.! How hard is Arabic to learn, anyhow?
Deno the Untergeek
April 6, 2005 at 2:03 am
36You forgot one of the best differences: herb, pronounced like ‘erb here and Herb there (because there’s a f*cking ‘h’ in it; with apologies to Eddie Izzard).
Also, we say President, they say psychopathic git…
Pete in Van Diemen's Land
April 6, 2005 at 7:00 pm
37hedera: it’s a beautiful language, and it’s not as bloody hard as English! Actually, it’s a lot like traditional chinese - although the dialects vary to the point where people from geographically disparate areas have difficulty understanding one another, the written form is almost universally readable, not to mention quite lovely. (And it’s a great language for clearing the sinuses!) I’ve been lucky enough to own a copy of the Qur’an, in english and Arabic, with commentaries. The original is better!
Here’s some (actual) phrases our American friends may find useful: (note that I’m writing these phonetically, so they look ‘orrible, ‘erb)
Akhbar khali-kili haftir loftan = “Thank you for showing me your marvellous gun!”
One for Adam: Khrel, jepaheh maneh va jayeii Amrikahey = “I will tell you the names and address of many American spies travelling as reporters”.
And my favourite phrase, to be used often and quickly: Shomaeh fekr tamomeh oeh gofteh bande = “I agree with everything you have ever said or thought in your life.”
Pete in Van Diemen's Land
April 6, 2005 at 7:49 pm
38BTW - Thank you, Jim, that site is in my favorites list as of now. Interesting, seeing the US “rebuttal” (and the Merkinized version!).
I laughed until I farted.
ABM
April 7, 2005 at 5:27 pm
39Hedera - did we work in the same place in 2001 cause I remember BEING the person in the kitchen jamming a coat hanger in the back of the television so we could watch the WTC fall down.
hedera
April 7, 2005 at 11:18 pm
40Sorry, ABM, in my case the TV with the coat hanger antenna wasn’t in the kitchen, which is in the center of the building; they moved it to a cube next to the window to improve the crummy reception.
Jim, I hadn’t seen the John Cleese article on Snopes, and I LOVE it!
Mr_Blog
April 8, 2005 at 4:50 pm
41Who cares about Terri Schiavo and the Pope? What about the ongoing Francisco Franco deathwatch???
David
April 10, 2005 at 6:23 pm
42JP 2 is not the hero of the fall of communism, whatever in hell that actually means. Gorbachev ended the Soviet Union, with tangential assistance from a late President Reagan, after an earlier President Reagan almost succeeded in handing the Soviet hardliners a reason to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States before Star Wars could become a reality.
How deep into the shit of myth will we wade this time around? Cephalo-rectal thrustitis uber alles.
I would also add that absolutely no one, besides some money moguls, won the g’damned cold war. It was a lose-lose situation start to un-finish.
BUT, hooray to JP2 for his comments on unregulated capitalism and on the need for a healthy MSM. Still, sainthood for someone who reacted to Central America in the 80s the way he did? Sainthood for MLK, Jr., but more like the Church’s highest mortal award for certain limited aspects of JP2’s papacy, and eternal hallelujahs for his opposition to the assault on Iraq, although he could have been a hell of a lot more adamant.
But by all the standard defininitions I can find, I’m a damned pagan (I worship collard greens), so what the f**k am I doing weighing in on anything?