**If It Sells, It's News

It’s a fact, the television business is out to make money… every business is. But at what cost? I understand that entertainment news can generate more viewer-ship, but I feel that CNN should not even bother tinkering with such frivolity. CNN used to be the channel my family and I would turn to for the latest, ground-breaking, usually bi-partisan, journalistic current events... But now, all I see is this:



They poke fun at celebrities with this segment, sarcastically targeting the mishaps of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian and Heidi Montag... But this segment only made CNN look immature and desperate for quick viewers. They threw away years of hard earned journalistic credibility for a few moments of entertainment limelight. CNN should understand that their viewers expect a level of professionalism when they watch this network. Insinuating gossip and trash talking coming from the mouths of respectable news reporters is very pathetic.

CNN has essentially added “advertising” elements to their broadcasts to increase viewer numbers and profits by reporting on entertainment issues and focusing on gossip when they should concentrate on more critical topics... Full time. The direction of reporting news has been skewed and needs to return back to its core foundations.

Jeffrey Bewkes... when are you going to focus more on the issues at hand instead of the money in your hands?

**CNN is Paris Hilton's New BFF

Does everybody remember when the infamous Paris Hilton was incarcerated? She violated her probation and was caught driving with a suspended license... I'm sure we ALL remember that little piece of juicy gossip. How could we not? It was covered on all the major entertainment networks and programs such as E! News and MTV, as well as KTLA 5 and FOX News... But CNN too?

In fact, if I'm not mistaken, CNN did the most extensive coverage on Paris Hilton's arrest, covering her every Pre-Interview move from the car to the CNN studio, walking towards and into the building, then finally "going up the elevator" to meet with Larry King to reveal her heartbreaking story of how she was in jail for... 39 days... It was very intense. So intense that Wolf Blitzer had to cut his interview short with Bill Cosby about inner city poverty to throw the attention towards Carol Costello, who apparently was covering the Paris-walking-towards-her-post-jail-interview story.

The interview itself re-enforced the importance of CNN's coverage of Paris Hilton's experience and revelations in jail, as one can see from the emotion and sincerity she displays with Larry. I'm sure the millions of viewers that tuned to see this $1 million interview can all agree that this hour was not a waste of brain cells and dendrites. Not to mention Paris' $300,000 follow-up exclusive interview with People magazine... a magazine owned by Time Warner (aka CEO Jeffrey Bewkes), which also owns CNN.

**Mission Statement

I don’t know about you, but I’m currently sick of watching television. Besides a few token TV series or shows that one watches purely for entertainment, the scheme of television programming is on a downgrading slope. There are so many reality shows on every channel, television news programs no longer educate the public without a hidden biased agenda, and what’s worse, celebrity news has in some cases, foreshadowed more serious issues on the home front and international level. We already have E! News, MTV, VH1, TMZ, Perez Hilton’s blog, and dozens of entertainment magazines that feature celebrity news and salacious gossip… There is no need for trivial news to leak into our “credible” news networks and I strongly believe that it is harmful for our society to be over exposed to so much frivolity.

I am a senior at Chapman University, soon to receive my bachelor’s in Advertising and PR. I have studied the art of persuasion and the sensationalizing effects of advertising, which has fueled my current disposition against certain television news networks. I observed the changes in the quality of such programming and I feel the necessity to articulate myself and educate others on the misdirection and biases of certain networks. I write this blog to address that very issue. I write to lobby for quality news reporting.

Due to my concern that major news networks such as CNN, are less focused on reporting newsworthy issues, I want to influence a change. I demand a statement, issued by Jeffrey Bewkes, the CEO for Time Warner (who owns the CNN network),

which mandates the limitations of entertainment reporting to 10% of all CNN programming. I want the news line-up on CNN to reflect the importance of current issues in today’s society… Not to report on who Paris Hilton’s new “b.f.f.” will be.