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Over the years, the content on CNN.com has become increasingly trivial. It’s impossible to read about issues of real importance on CNN without being forcibly exposed to celebrity gossip. A lot of people would know nothing about Paris Hilton or Britney Spears if outfits like CNN - which for some reason we’ve mistaken as a legitimate news source - didn’t shove it down our throats.
Of course, CNN is only responding to the market. Human interest stories are consistently the most popular on CNN.com, pointing to the fact that they are what people want. The problem is this: I, like most Americans, find these stories irresistible. It’s like handing us a big bowl of ice cream - we know we shouldn’t take it, but it’s right in front of our face, will it really hurt anyone? We go to CNN.com for our news for the same reason we don’t buy ice cream - if junk food in our house, we know we will lose control.
CNN, please, take this junk out of our house. Don’t let the fact that we soak it up fool you: We hate it. We hate ourselves for watching it. You’re making us hate ourselves.
This marks the beginning of a coordinated effort to reestablish sources of news that don’t disgust us at every turn, starting with CNN.
Let’s show CNN that this is not what we want.
Right now, I allow myself to indulge in the junk at CNN because I know if I stop it won’t make any difference. But if I knew 1,000,000 people were acting with me, our combined effort would have a tangible effect on CNN. The power of numbers would give me the strength not to click.
Proposed Solution
We, the undersigned, would like CNN to remove trivial human interest stories, celebrity gossip, and other forms of car-crash journalism from the “above the fold” area of CNN.com. That includes:
* The featured news piece
* The BREAKING NEWS banners
* The “Latest News” listing
If CNN insists on pursuing this form of journalism, they should move it to a sub-site instead of polluting the experience for everyone that prefers to focus on things that actually matter.
