This is slightly disturbing.

[Jacksons Shred]

I love the fact that whenever I make a new topic, it evolves me being pissed off, damaged by a water balloon launcher, or just ranting about general bullshit. Is anyone else sick of pathetic obsesive-celebrity tv shows and web-sites such as that pathetic tmz.com site? I personally avoid those pathetic want-to be celebrities so called "entertainment" at all costs. But every now and then I'll see a headline "BRITNEY IS POOR?", "CHRISTINA WENT TO THE BATHROOM AT 2:45, WHAT A TRAMP!" and whatever sort of bullshit they want to provide with.

I was browsing CNN.com today when this caught my eye.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2008/05/28/sbt.hogan.tapes.cnn

I thought it would be more of a intelligent argument, rather than those low life tramps at TMZ publicizing off a childs pain and agony for serving jail time.

I'm pretty sure many of you know that Hulk Hogans son was arrested and put into jail for a driving accident which almost killed his best friend. Now the kid (he is still a minor, mind you) is doing jail time and having conversation with his parents, and the media is feasting off it like flies on shit.

The main thing that pisses me off about that video, is some stupid cunt is trying to act as if she's important, the fact that she's trying to damage a family image by what they thought was a private conversation. Look, tramp, you're pathetic. A kid was talking to his mother and father and wishing he could get some fresh air, and make some money to pay back the (millions, possibly) his parents are going to need to pay for his best friends family sueing them to shit. Did that happen to cross her two bit mind? No, instead she just keeps yapping like a retarded dog about how greedy and terrible he is.

No doubt that what happened was a total tragedy, but for fucks sake, let the kid do his time, let the family grief! Stop fucking obsessing over celebrities lives! I'm really sick of this shit man, they're stalkers, I'm sick of hearing about some celebrity crashing because 200 photographers want to catch every second of a celebrities life.

I just think it's pathetic, absurd, lame, obnoxious, retarded, slow, idiotic, pathetic, pathetic, pathetic that these people will just sit, sell, and produce this drivel they call news.

Ever since I heardthe lyrics on Nevermore - Final Product (God damn, he is an amazing lyricist and vocalist) I've been meaning to rant on about the pathetic paparazzi.

In fact, maybe 2 months ago a kid in my area died in a horrible car accident, there were 5 different news stations at the school that day, at all the memorial service, some dude had the balls to get up in a friends face and said something along the lines of "Sympathy doesn't get high ratings, crying does". If I was there I would have laid him the fuck out..

Anyways.. Thoughts?

[Cygnus X1]

The only thing worse than the so-called reporting is the people that actually gobble it up as news. I distrust the ratings system in the first place. But the news execs make the claim that it's what the audience wants. It's a snake eating its own tail.

Some of those 'tards vote...that's the really scary part.

[Jacksons Shred]

The only thing worse than the so-called reporting is the people that actually gobble it up as news. I distrust the ratings system in the first place. But the news execs make the claim that it's what the audience wants. It's a snake eating its own tail.

Some of those 'tards vote...that's the really scary part.

Yeah, the people that feed into it are equally as lame as the people producing it.

[Axewielder]

I'm amazed at how popular those stupid celebrity news shows are.

[VitaminG]

unfortunately, it's the end user to blame. If people weren't buying up so much of these gossip mags & so many watching these crappy tabloid tv shows, if there was no money it, then they wouldn't be pushing it. So all those people crying over what the evil paparazzi did to their beloved Princess Di are the same people feeding the beast. We want more scandal, more intrusive pics, details about their relationships & personal failings.

I give my wife a hard time any time she buys one of the women's gossip rags.

[Bengal]

Lets not confuse TMZ with national or local news. They are 2 very different things.

People throw out the term "media" as a blanket statement. To me, TMZ is not media. It's entertainment. Somewhere along the way, the line got blurred.

You can also blame people who watch reality TV. Nobody would care about Hogans kid if it wasn't for the reality show.

[MikeStrat]

The Hogan's fake and self absorbed little world is crumbling around them. I think it's great. I'm not sure why these reporters are so shocked at what they are saying. That family is damn lucky they made it as far as they did. The four of them together don't have a full brain in their head. And that cocky fuckwad Nick deserves to be in jail a lot longer than 8 months. He should be glad he's not the one confined to a bed for the rest of his life.

All those people that worshiped Hulk Hogan now know what his big bumb ass was all about.

[JacksonDean]

Lets not confuse TMZ with national or local news. They are 2 very different things.

People throw out the term "media" as a blanket statement. To me, TMZ is not media. It's entertainment. Somewhere along the way, the line got blurred.

You can also blame people who watch reality TV. Nobody would care about Hogans kid if it wasn't for the reality show.

Honestly, you think there's a difference between the crap about celebrities and the "real news"? It's all entertainment, sensationalism. Personally, I see very little difference in any of it.

As for the term media, it is a blanket term. Television, radio, internet... it's all media.

Oh, and I'm not trying to threaten your manhood by disagreeing with you, so before you fly off the handle in your response if you so deign to do so, I'm not going to get into a pissing match with you.

[Newc]

All televised news programs - especially CNN and FOX - are competing with each other at the basest level: controversy and flash.

There's no substance, it's all just 3 second blurbs to catch your attention and in-depth coverage of something that happens 1 million times a day, except it happened to a celebrity.

Plus they're all following the MTV template of having hundreds of individual "News" programs - Hannity & Colmes, Lou Dobbs, Glen Beck, Nancy Grace, etc etc etc.

When I was growing up we had ABC, NBC, and CBS. They gave the news at 6 and 10PM, and the station editor/network chief gave his Editorial Opinion. Then it went off.

While CNN has done a lot of quality reporting, the last 5+ years have been nothing but tabloid journalism. All the others that came up afterwards showed promise, but then quickly followed CNN downhill.

It's to the point where I just don't watch them anymore. I see them at work on the TV in the break room, but I go somewhere else to eat my lunch so I don't have to hear it.

[fr0sty]

I hate journalism..

[Bengal]

Honestly, you think there's a difference between the crap about celebrities and the "real news"? It's all entertainment, sensationalism. Personally, I see very little difference in any of it.

As for the term media, it is a blanket term. Television, radio, internet... it's all media.

Oh, and I'm not trying to threaten your manhood by disagreeing with you, so before you fly off the handle in your response if you so deign to do so, I'm not going to get into a pissing match with you.

Yes, I think there is a difference. Know how many stories we did at the station I work for about Hulk Hogan? None. How about the stories we did about the 7 killed in the tornadoes last weeek? Was that crap news?

How about going on the air saying there was a tornado on the ground last week giving people in northren Iowa time to get in their basements? Was that crap news? Nope, not at all.

I'm not talking about the 24 hour news stations, I'm talking about national and local news. There is a big difference between TMZ and WHO-TV.

If you're too blind to see it, that's your problem. Don't turn on your local news station next time the weather gets hinkey. Remember, they can't help you.

[Bengal]

Remember, I'm not talking about CNN-FOX News-MSNBC here.

If you want to be pissed about the media for going soft after 9/11, I'm right there with you. They (national news, CBS-NBC-ABC) have given this administration a pass for just about everything they have done. THAT you can be pissed about, everyone should be pissed about that.

But like I said, it's the people eating it up that's taken down the CNN's and whatnot. If the idiots didn't watch Hogan Knows Best or didn't love to watch Brittney take an ambulance ride then these stations wouldn't do stories like this.

Remember, the guy running TMZ is a lawyer, not a journalist.

[JacksonDean]

.. Don't turn on your local news station next time the weather gets hinkey. Remember, they can't help you.

I won't and I don't. My TV is on for a few hours a week during football season. My daughter watches DVDs or sometimes Saturday-morning cartoons when she's here; most of those are rubbish. I get thankfully-muted exposure to TV at the bar, and generally that's some sporting event.

When I want to know what the weather is like, I look out the window. On the very rare occasions when I want to see what the weather forecasters got when they spun the Roulette Wheel of Weather Forecasts, I check with the weather channel's web page. Then I don't have to listen to some one tell me about the "Bad News" when there's rain in the forecast -- since we don't need the moisture here or anything.

Of course they can't help me; they can't even get the forecast right most of the time.

I'm not missing out on anything by not watching TV. I don't get insulted by condescending commercials. I don't sit in a zombie-like state during the 700th repeat of some Friends episode, or waste my time seeing some shit that a committee of network executives deemed worthy to go on the air. When I did watch TV, I was floored by the poor selection of shows and had to ask myself if this is what they bought and aired, how bad was the stuff they passed on?

Even at the local level, it's all about ratings and viewers, not about disseminating actual information.

[Bengal]

I won't and I don't. My TV is on for a few hours a week during football season. My daughter watches DVDs or sometimes Saturday-morning cartoons when she's here; most of those are rubbish. I get thankfully-muted exposure to TV at the bar, and generally that's some sporting event.

When I want to know what the weather is like, I look out the window. On the very rare occasions when I want to see what the weather forecasters got when they spun the Roulette Wheel of Weather Forecasts, I check with the weather channel's web page. Then I don't have to listen to some one tell me about the "Bad News" when there's rain in the forecast -- since we don't need the moisture here or anything.

Of course they can't help me; they can't even get the forecast right most of the time.

I'm not missing out on anything by not watching TV. I don't get insulted by condescending commercials. I don't sit in a zombie-like state during the 700th repeat of some Friends episode, or waste my time seeing some shit that a committee of network executives deemed worthy to go on the air. When I did watch TV, I was floored by the poor selection of shows and had to ask myself if this is what they bought and aired, how bad was the stuff they passed on?

Even at the local level, it's all about ratings and viewers, not about disseminating actual information.

Wow, you're a rebel.

Blanket statements work for you, I get it. So your concience is clean.

Next time, go off in the supermarket on that lady buying the National Inquirer. Your scorn would be better placed there.

[Bengal]

OK, just for shits and giggles, lets see what the top stories are on the website of the station I work for. Shall we?

Iowa Headlines

Former Hawkeye Everson turns himself in, appears in court
News Minute: Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press
Appeals court denies appeal from dad who fell asleep
Debris found in Wis. more than 100 miles from Iowa tornado
Former Neb. sheriff's deputy faces child porn charges
State health officials plan HIV/AIDS conference
Des Moines ranks 9th in Kiplinger's Best Cities for 2008
Seven projects get grants to improve water quality
Secretary of state posts Election Day video
Former Williamsburg coach charged with theft

Hum. Where's all the sensational news? I know we get emails gallore saying the public wants more stories on water quality. I'm sure we wouldn't do that story if there wasn't a huge outcry for that.

Where's the celebrity stories? Where's the shit news? I don't see it. Maybe our webguy is an idiot. He's somewhat new so give him a break.