THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING RANT:))

"SMOKIN" THE KEYBOARD!!

Well, some of you may have noticed that last night's blog about CNN kind of disappeared to-day. Don from Manitoba sent an email wondering if someone had told me it was politically incorrect. Well, yes somebody did.........Me!! As sometimes happens after writing a blog, I have second thoughts about either the subject matter or the way I wrote it. Last night & this morning it was really bugging me about some of the words I had used & a couple of phrases were not sitting quite right either. But, I do stand behind the subject matter!! So, after reading some emails from a few more followers I have decided to re-post it. I did change a few words & took out a few phrases. Don't think it's right for me to refer to somebody else as stupid, even if.......well, you know.

And a big thanks to Rex from The Happy Campers http://www.rexandmary.blogspot.com/ for sending along a tip on how to re-size that top photo on our blog. I've got a little tweaking to do yet but basically his tip worked. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I passed it along here........

"I GO TO PICSA3 PICTURE EDITING, A FREE PROGRAM FROM GOOGLE, EDIT MY PICTURE AND THEN HIT "EXPORT" A LITTLE BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM. WHEN THE NEXT BOX COMES UP ABOUT HALF WAY DOWN CLICK RESIZE AND TYPE IN "945" PIXELS. CLICK "OK".
GO TO MY PICTURES, OPEN THE FOLDER PICASA EXPORTS AND THEN UPLOAD THAT PICTURE TO YOUR HEADER."

Ok, now for last night's re-appearing rant................

TICKED OFF AT CNN NEWS!!
Probably all the news channels use this "bait the viewer" ploy in their newscasts but since we mainly watch CNN News my complaint is with them. Like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey's nose to get him moving, newscasts regularly use the same bait ploy to drag viewers through a whole newscast. They will often say something like, "coming up after this" then cut to a million commercials. You end up sitting there waiting for the "coming up after this" story right to the end of the newscast. It's an accepted part of duping viewers on the news channels but to-day they really ticked me off!!

Wolf Blitzer started off the usual 5 o'clock top of the hour with news bites of what's coming up in the next hour. One of those stories was about the Conficker Virus now infecting millions of computers. He indicated that it was a scam & eluded to the fact computer users were being taken. The newscast then led off with all the days news & dozens of re-runs they have been playing all day. This went on for an hour & every once in awhile between endless commercials he would say something like, "and coming up, new details on the Conficker Virus." By this time I was soooooo livid because I knew they were dragging the viewers through the newscast with the donkey's carrot.

Normally, this is a harmless, if not questionably ethical way of doing things and it was 5:57 P.M. before they did the Conficker story. A full 56 minutes after they first mentioned it. Story went on to say that people were being scammed by a pop up on the screen saying they could rid their computer of the Conficker Virus for $49.95. (not sure if that was the exact amount) By clicking on that banner or site or whatever it was, it just spread the virus further. And that's what the scam was. People were unknowingly infecting their computers by clicking on that ad.

Now here's my rub!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why in the screaming hell didn't they lead off with that story in the first place if they had that information in their hands. How many people in that hour fell victim to that scam because they didn't know. How many more computers were infected that didn't have to be. There may have been people on their computers in that hour watching CNN as well. That scam might have popped up on their screen & they may have fallen for it simply because CNN in their "bait the viewer" way of doing business chose to air that story dead last in their newscast. CNN seems to be sooooooooo focused on how many commercials they can possible jam onto the air between their snippets of news coverage. And how many times do you have to re-run the same old clips over & over all day long before the word ridiculous comes into play. And who makes those decisions. And what top paid fancy ass executive at CNN made the decision to-day to put that Conficker warning on at the end of the newscast instead of the beginning. Computer virus's are deadly serious to absolutely everyone & for Wolf Blitzer to stand there for a whole hour with the information he had in his hand to help stop or slow the virus down, & withhold it through the whole newscast was just plain wrong. Either change your tactics CNN or just roll over into the infomercial world.

By the way, I just finished reading Walter Cronkite's book, A Reporter's Life, & I strongly suggest ALL of to-day's news agency's read that book & seriously take to heart & re-learn the ethics of Journalism.

No, I didn't fall for that Conficker scam. I or the public simply do not like being treated as Donkey's, so stick that carrot where the sun don't shine CNN & get on with the business of treating your viewers with the intelligence they deserve!!

Geeeezzzz, gotta go get a fire extinguisher cause my keyboards on fire again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!