On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 16:24:32 -0400, "
wrote:

On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 14:59:50 -0400, The Artist Formerly Known As Your
Highness BurnTheAstroCharts wrote:

On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 11:17:59 -0400, "
wrote:


Their credibility was shot when they started accepting paid
advertisements circa 1985.

Err, just curious... Where do you get your news from since all the
outlets I can think of accet paid avertising (cnn, abc, nbc, papers,
radio, etc...)


From the OT threads on Usenet's rec.gambling.poker. Isn't that where
everyone gets their news?

In my mind (what's left of it) there is no such thing as news anymore.
It's all filtered, pre-packaged infotainment. NPR, McNeil-Lehrer, and
CSPAN probably come closest to reporting non-commercialized news. As
I inexorably matriculate to geezer status, "news" becomes less and
less relevant to my life.

At least with weather, I can get the analyzed data, if not the raw
data, from the internet without commercial interruption (or even
banner advertising!). For instance, with Hurricane Frances, I'm very
proud of myself that I've resisted any temptation to flip the switch
over to TWC. They'd simply bombard me with Billy Mays/Miss Cleo every
30 seconds, not to mention hype the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th coming of
Armageddon. Fortunately, there are lots of great internet weather
sites out there.

As an aside, ESPN is sorta following TWC's path with all of its
pre-scripted, slickly-packaged puffery of ubiquitous
self-aggrandizement. I can put up with it though since sports is more
or less the male oriented version of a soap opera ("gee, did you see
Pedro's WWF takedown of Don Zimmer the other day, blah blah blah...").
YMMV.