Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Could I be any lazier? Oh, and P.S.: I hate CNN.

For once, the answer is, yes, I could! I got up extra early this morning and went jogging/walking around the reservoir in Central Park. It's been ages since I've done that, so it was definitely more walking than anything else, but I'm glad I did it. I'm going to try to start going on a regular basis again.

After I got home, I collapsed on the couch for a few minutes to drink some water before getting ready for work. I turned on the TV to see what I could find out about the state of the world and found myself watching CNN. Now, you may have heard about the recent tussle French President Nicolas Sarkozy got into with some American photographers while he was vacationing off the coast of New Hampshire (more details here if you haven't heard about this). Basically, he was irritated about being photographed and confronted the photographers, complete with much yelling in French. CNN's take on this? Some asshole morning news guy (not the anchor, some other dip shit whose name I don't know) says: "We are Americans. We don't speak French in France; we're certainly not going to speak it in New Hampshire." Thank you very much, CNN, for reinforcing the Ugly American stereotype so effectively. It's a sad day in the world of journalism when the self proclaimed "most trusted name in news" considers it good reporting to jovially encourage Americans to embrace their obnoxious reluctance to learn anything about any other culture and, rather, cling to the ridiculous assumption that the whole world over is just dying to bend to our will. I've hated CNN for a long time now. But this...this is a whole new low.

I needed to stop watching CNN immediately (and probably permanently) after that and started flipping channels. I sped past the Disney channel but had to flip back again, because I thought I saw a familiar face. Sure enough, John Tartaglia of Avenue Q fame has his own Disney show called Johnny and the Sprites. I miss having J.T. on Broadway, but I guess he has to pay the bills.

3 comments:

Aloha Pineapple said...

When Rachel and I were in Europe in May and we would watch Sky News or CNN Worldwide, it was all about the French elections...it was like an obsession over there.

I had my own Ugly American experience when I was in the French Riviera. The obese American man with a fanny pack in front of me in line at the train station said loudly to the lady behind the counter, "I WANT ROUND-TRIP TICKETS FOR ME AND MY WIFE TO MONTE CARLO. WANNA SEE MY PASSPORT?" The lady looked at him in disbelief and rolled her eyes. I was embarrassed that he didn't even say, "Bonjour" at least, you know? UGH.

--Michelle

Tori said...

That guy really went for just about every American stereotype there is: The obesity, the assumption that yelling will result in everyone around magically speaking fluent English, and (my favorite) the fanny pack!

Shannon said...

You and Micah should get together and start a CNN Hating Club. You can head the TV department, and he can head the Print News department. Honestly, if he doesn't have a story-related complaint, he can always complain about their terrible copy editing.