Imagine Randomly Flipping Through the Channels...

Sorry to do a pair of journalism-related posts back-to-back -- although I doubt it matters what one says when one speaks in a vacuum -- but I found this irrisistably hellacious. Fox News, in all their infinite wisdom, aired scenes of Library Tower exploding from the movie "Independence Day" during discussions of the reported 2002 terrorist hijacking into the L.A. landmark, now known as the U.S. Bank Tower. (Personally, I think the name change is a bland downgrade, but nothing as uninspiringly weak as this bit of news.) In any case, I blame this heartless brand of faux-journalism on the very notion of 24-hour cable channels, but the fact remains that even making a tenuous comparison between aliens exploding a building with a laser and true-life terrorist plots is inherently lousy. Would Fox News run footage from "Platoon" or "Saving Private Ryan" during a conversation of soldiers dying? Plus, check out that last line from the anchor -- great reporting there! *Sigh* I need to stop and go to sleep now because discussing Fox News (even if to a non-existent audience) makes me tense up in anger/frustration.

P.S. I just realized that "Independence Day" was produced by 20th Century Fox. If this was a cheap excuse to sell some DVDs, I swear to all that is holy I will put a hatchet through my television set.