CNN commercial for CNN just now.

[onehandle]

Setting: African-American Barber Shop. Mostly men.

Conversation about the merits of garlic on cholesterol.

Chatter and disagreement back and forth.

One female barber says, "Actually I heard a report that garlic has no effect on the lowering of cholesterol, but that diet and exercise do."

While she is speaking, the camera pans over an iPod with Sanjay Gupta silently giving a report on CNN.

The men pause for a moment then one of them walks to the female and says something to the effect of, "I'm getting a cut from her today." Laughter and fade out.

A tagline implies that you will be very informed by watching CNN.


I'm not commenting on the garlic report or Gupta, but on the self-importance of CNN.

Do you hear or read one fact from one source, then fix or change your universe? I don't.

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. Interesting for another reason...

..and that is they wouldn't ordinarily run a house ad -- not a bumper for a specific show they run -- unless they had no paying ad to run in the spot.

Advertising is getting slaughtered in this, as in any other, recession. The New Yorker is always thin after Christmas, but you should see the latest edition....

[peekaloo]

2. "The Most Trusted Name In Ruse"

or is it The Most Rusted Name in News?

[aikoaiko]

3. Saying, "Actually I heard a report ..." does not equal "change your universe".

I don't think it was a big deal.

[onehandle]

5. That was the reaction of everyone in the barber shop.

It was CNN's implication that they are the last word in being informed.

Nobody in the barber shop questioned the woman's repeating "what she heard on CNN."

"Change your universe" is accurate.

[metapunditedgy]

4. They're trying to sell the image that "CNN-watchers are well-informed,"

and so we should hold them in high esteem.

The reality is that you often can't trust what you hear in the news, and much of the time (esp. with TV news), it's just sensationalized junk anyway.

Totally agree about multi-sourcing news.

[Kip Humphrey]

6. Garlic growers unite! Big pharma is after you! (spearheaded by "I'm in it for the money" Gupta).

[onehandle]

7. Yeah, I didn't bring up the fact that Gupta has been sponsored by Lipitor over the years.

Glad I didn't bring that up.

Gupta will make a good spokesman for Obama, but he is a little too close to big Pharma.