Fox News Suffers Worst Ratings In Thirteen Years – And That’s Not Their Big Problem

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30. Welcome to DU, tom_kelly!

Glad you're here! That probably has a lot to do with CNN's fate, especially. Sure, they really distinguish themselves with overseas/international reporting, during major international stories where they have the depth and breadth that the competition just can't afford to build or cultivate. But with that Malaysian jet fiasco, I think they just took it way too far. It reminded many of us er - uh - slightly older types (who remember "Saturday Night Live" from its Aykroyd/Belushi/Radner/Chase era) of the running joke "Our top story tonight: Generalissimo Francisco Franco is STIIIIIIILLLL Dead!"

I guess it might be testimony supporting the "tacky-fication" of America. But it was damn funny because, for better or worse, the Generalissimo's looooooonnnnnnggg and irreversible decline had slowly turned into the never-ending story. He lingered for months. Could go at any moment. And nothing happened and nothing changed. It became darkly comical. So the "STIIIILLLLLLL Dead!" thing got HUGE laughs. Gallows humor for sure. Release of tension perhaps. Laughing in the face of death, which did inevitably come to the Generalissimo. Nobody lives forever. But in his case, some of us were starting to wonder...

The Malaysian plane story dragged on, I think, because CNN knew that international stories were its forte so they did what the media usually does: beat it to absolute pulpy powdery death. Beyond the point where there was anything significant to cover. They turn it into a farce. And as many of us are manifesting shorter-attention-spans, we're realizing the story doesn't have a tidy resolution the way all the 30- or 60-minute dramas do. So we lose patience when there's no nice clean tidy payoff with minimal delay.

...I think.