What the Fuck is with this CNN "IReport" garbage?

[jobycom]

First of all, I don't want to hear the opinions of ignorant egotists on a major "news" web site. I log on to those sites hoping to learn something I don't already know, or to hear a discussion amongst experts on a topic, not to hear morons babbling about things they don't even understand. So I avoided that link.

Until two minutes ago. I saw a title on CNN's home page that pissed me off, and clicked on it to see if I could respond. All I saw was a string of racist rants and conservative delusions about war and Islam. I won't quote any of it hear.

What the Hell is with CNN? There aren't enough blogs and web sites devoted to elevating the opinions of misinformed mediocrities already? Yeah, this one, too, even though it usually rises above that level. Why would anyone go to a news site to read idiots blathering nonsense? I mean, aside from the idiots paid to blather nonsense.

How can a Democracy survive if we lower the information threshold to the lowest possible denominator?

[susanbanks44]

1. I see the same people on

youtube. And I agree, dry heaving morons have no place on CNN, Tony Harris and Rick Sanchez already have those bases covered foe the network!

[jobycom]

3. They can put it on youtube, where you need a microscope and treasure map to find it.

But why is CNN glorifying it? CNN's only job should be to debunk half the crap that is posted there.

[LunaSea]

2. Google "Cult of the Amateur"

Good read.

[jobycom]

4. Interesting. I once wrote an essay on that same topic, only about talk radio.

Elevating the opinion of the amateur while ridiculing the expert. Got it "published" on a web site, thus illustrating my own point. :)

My problem isn't with people posting that stuff on the Internet. If anything, once people read how dumb most of these posters are, serious minds will reject the nonsense and look for more knowledgeable content. But CNN allowing it, on their website? That's sickening.

[taddles]

5. Go read the "opinions" after every news article on the CBS website...

it's full of racists and right wing loons spouting shit about Ayers and Wright and Obama being the Anti-Christ.

[jobycom]

6. Does CBS highlight those opinions on the home page, though?

CNN has a tease for these opinions on its main page, mixed in with the regular news headlines. I guess with the level of CNN's reporting over the last decade, that's probably appropriate.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

7. Democracy Means Having To Tolerate Opinions You Disagree With, No Matter How Distasteful.

And like you said: "So I avoided that link". Thank god your crisis was averted.

[tkmorris]

8. And the point whooshed overhead, gaining altitude as it flew

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

11. My Point Flew Over Your Head That Much, Huh? Sorry To Hear That.

Ask yourself this: If the comments were in line with the OP's beliefs, do you think there would be complaint?

Democracy means having to put up with those who agree as well as those who don't. Get over it.

[jobycom]

15. Wow. That's an uncharacteristic miss by you.

:shrug: You're usually better at reading than that.

[wvbygod]

9. You get what you pay for

In this case nothing.

[TreasonousBastard]

10. Watching cable news to learn something? What...

a novel idea.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

12. Who cares what some idjits on a CNN blog say?

How is this anything more than utterly irrelevant?

[jobycom]

16. It's not their blog, it's their news.

They are calling these posters "reporters" and giving them equal representation with the other stories on their web site.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

18. Good. Let them. CNN is useless anyway.

It hasn't been a real news channel in ten years. It's infotainment. Why even bother with it?

[EFerrari]

13. That's a good and also, the right question. n/t

[Swamp Rat]

14. Outsourcing the workload to non-paid "staff" who do not have to abide ethics in journalism.

It's a win-win for the Idiocracy.

[jobycom]

17. Hmm.

It allows them to spread the worst of the Republican smears, for free, without having to take responsibility for it. "It's just a bunch of posters, it's not our official position." But the rumors get spread, and by CNN no less. Maybe it is more deliberate than I thought.