There's Your Karma, Ripe As Peaches

Sometime last year, I was astonished to learn that in a time that sees the masses growing dumber by the minute, CNN added bullet-point summaries to their articles, effectively throwing in the towel on the effort to keep us moderately literate.

But since we all have ADD these days, I suppose that was inevitable. What I could not (and should not) have anticipated, however, was the possibility that CNN would completely forgo journalistic integrity in order to boost revenue and give The Onion a run for its money. Granted, you don't get gems like "Why Do All These Homosexuals Keep Sucking on my Cock" at CNN but it's fair to say that the level of news at this once venerable site has strayed well beyond the ridiculous and into the shameful. And now, they've taken things a step further by selling t-shirts that feature their own nonsensical headlines from articles and video posts.

Head over to CNN.com and take a gander at the headlines area. You see that t-shirt icon next to the video headlines? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. For $15.99 plus shipping and handling, you can get t-shirts that say things like:

• Pacing man stuck 41 hours in elevator
• Synchronized swimmers faint in unison
• 'Hips Don't Lie' singer pushes education
• Rep calls workers 'illiterate peasants'
  
• Prince drops copter in gal pal's yard
• Russian missile obliterates spy plane
  

You know, it'd be one thing if these headlines were actually funny. At least then you could give CNN some credit for being creative as they continue their descent into becoming the American version of News of the World. But like The Simpsons these days, these efforts don't even elicit a smile, let alone laughter, and after the link cycles off the page, no one will ever know why (or how) it was supposed to be amusing. 

"Oh my shirt? Well that was a craaaaaazy headline that I saw on CNN 4 months ago! ... What? ... No wait, seriously! It's hilarious! Just let me explain -- there was this guy that paced all the time - you know those nervous types right? Well, he ended up stuck on an elevator for FORTY-ONE HOURS! Can you imagine? I mean, don't you see the irony of it? Totally nuts!"

By the looks of things, people are already buying into this crap.

Clowns like the ones seen above make me wish I carried around a floppy dildo that I could pull out of a hip holster and smack people with whenever the need arose. I don't think I'm alone in saying that the witless clowns shelling out cash for these shirts and the sad sack jokers in Atlanta that thought them up are in need of a cock punch. A fierce cock punch. To the face.

Posted on 22 April 2008 | Filed under: Shallow Observations | Comments (10) | AIM Me