Cheerleader News Network

The more I watch CNN while comparing it's coverage with for instance the BBC and available online resources the more disturbed I get. Reporing on the recent ruling of the unwarranted and therefor illegal surveillance by the Bush administration CNN summarises this with "a serious setback in the war on terror" instead of something along the lines of "a small victory in the fight against Big Brother" or something more neutral, balanced, conform the facts instead of their cheerleader interpretation. The ammount of programs for spying on the population of the Unites States is staggering [learn more] and turn something ominous als George Orwell's "1984" into some pale shadow of reality. The movie "Enemy of the State" (1998) [IMDB] depicted technologies from the cold war with laughable coin sized tracking devices, instead of something a little smaller, the size of an appleseed perhaps. The folks from the NSA had to actually sit in a huge and rather conspicious van, as if they even need to be close to their target these days and still it was a frightening eye opener for many viewers.
Just days before the landfall of Katrina a year ago CNN is going to air "In the Footsteps of Bin Laden", spamming viewers with images and cut-outs weeks before the broadcast takes place. They apparently don't feel the need to look back on the cause, preface or aftermath of this hurricane, a natural disaster fuelled more by the lack of adequate disaster preparation and management then by the temperature of the Gulf of Mexico. It seems as if they need to distract the American public from the failures of it's leadership and have them all look the other way. How effective the organisation of yet another Hateweek starring the notoriously elusive Osama Bin Goldstein is I cannot even begin to imagine, but I fear the worst.
Suddenly I remember the coverage of the first elections Bush jr won, if that is the proper way of putting it and the role played by CNN. Chilling. But lets stick to current affairs.
Lets get back to the Shampoo Plot, which is slowly falling apart and loosing it's credibility. Blair called Bush about the upcoming wave of arrests so he could work some PR around it but went on vacation during "the biggest threat to Britain since World War II". Many alleged plotters didn't have airline tickets, passports even. But instead of questioning these events the trusted cheerleaders of the BushCo administration jumped on some confession from a guy arrested in Bangkok, and went 10 years back in time to rehash the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, a clear cut case of child abuse, by her parents, who robbed the girl of her childhood to begin with. This John Mark Karr, who reminded me of a zombie as he stood there in the flashlights, had probably experienced some hefty interrogation, got some first hand experiences with the local Thai prison system, figured a hasty retreat to the USA was in his best interest and got what he had bargained for. The Cheerleaders will probably find something new in the development of this and simular high profile, low content cases whenever friend Bush is in a predicament (again) or the Neo Conservative flock is in need for public distribution of their point of view. Coming elections, both of them, matters will most likely only get worse.