yelvington.com

I was stuck in an airport lounge Saturday morning, sitting in Lubbock, Texas, waiting for the fog to clear in Houston so I could go home. The TV was babbling away. It was CNN's airport channel. I have no idea what happened in Iraq, because CNN didn't see fit to tell me what was going on. I heard two things, repeated over and over: CNN is the most trusted name in journalism (promo, with booming voice and imposing music). And Alec Baldwin yelling at his daughter on the phone.

Alec Baldwin yelling. A story with no civic or social value, appealing only to our inner Gladys Kravitz, a story that had been on the Today show 24 hours earlier.

Then, over the weekend, came the next idiotic nonstory: Sheryl Crow and the toilet paper. One square per toilet visit! Looney-tunes liberals on the loose! But did anyone actually read her blog item? She was leg-pulling. Clear unless you're either a complete moron or work in TV "news."

24-hour television news has created a terrible vacuum into which the worst possible garbage is pulled. Celebrity trash. Shouting heads. Political demagogues masquerading as journalists. Result: Fewer people today can name the vice president, their own governor, or the president of Russia today than in 1989. And the best-informed Americans are the ones who watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

Somewhere a TV news channel executive is feeling good about bumping the Nielsen numbers. He, she or it should feel ashamed about trashing the brand, not only of the channel/network, but of journalism itself.