CNN irks me

Next week is going to bring closure to a lot of issues floating around in my head right now and quite frankly next week can't come soon enough. Whether it's assignments that I'm waiting for clarification on or the upcoming TA strike at York University which will likely have a significant impact on B!G's operations (and my commuting patterns...), it will be nice to finally see this long October finally closed out and some heavy considerations resolved in my mind.

The biggest consideration for me right now is the US presidential election and the figurative chickens have not yet figuratively hatched. So let's not count them.

I'm watching Larry King Live now and he's barking on about irrelevant issue - the Elizabeth Dole 'godless' ad and the article in the LA Times about Obama's dinner party six years ago with a member of the PLO. Michael Medved is making some bizarre point and Arianna Huffington, Ben Stein, and Paul Begala are all screaming over each other. It's mania. Larry (shown left), is barely controlling this shrill circus of rehashed points and nonsensical spin.

CNN at times attracts and repels me - there's a definite repulsive force, especially reeking from Wolf Blitzer, CNN's best doddering time-filler. At times the network can show real strong integrity and despite a pervasive liberal slant, can appear non-biased and truly representative of some Pollyanna'ed ideal of good journalism. Campbell Brown and Anderson Cooper are strong cards in their hand.

Then there are times when they bring out the touch-screen electroral map. I know maps, but this one boggles the mind. Today Miles O'Brien and Wolf Blitzer (gee, what a team) put up a graphic on the map illustrating the location of polling stations across the country that used different types of voting interfaces (paper ballot, electronic, etc)....it's really painful to listen to news being made up as the broadcast goes along.

I guess this ramble is just reflections brought on by a fatigued brain, a hectic week, and a basic all stop in consumer culture to focus on the specifics of this campaign (and HSM3, which I'm seeing this weekend). Seriously, not much has happened in the world of consumer culture lately and there's been a real adjustment of focus toward McCain and Obama.

...oh thank God, Larry just announced that his show will have "double election coverage" next week.