At some point in the past few days, I’ve stopped receiving CNN  on my cable TV. The channel it was on is now showing some local Korean channel with a mix of news, shopping and human interest. Although that was one of the few English language channels on the tube here, I’m not terribly upset. I can always catch it on the internet. But then, these days, why would I want to?

It seems CNN has gotten the same disease as a number of US news conglomerates: entertainment-itis. The media centers have mistakenly lumped lumped the news sections of their companies under the banner of entertainment where the goal isn’t to inform but to capture eyeballs. Check the headlines on CNN lately? The big ‘news” it seems is 1) who gets the axe on American Idol, 2) how much a piece of prehistoric poop sold at auction for and 3) a rare John Lennon copyright fight. Big whoopdie-frickin-doo.

I think CNN has lots its way. I think losing CNN off the tube here is no big deal. I’m guessing that the Koreans in charge of determining what cable content makes it to everyone’s home think mostly the same thing – CNN isn’t really news. Its ‘entertainment’, although even that is debatable.