Wednesday, September 9, 2009

CNN's Story Highlights (a list of lists)

I just noticed the feature of every article on CNN.com that gives you "Story Highlights" in 4 bullet points. I can't decide if I love or hate. I mean really how hard is it to read these one page stories anyway. However, they are pretty funny.

Teen tennis sensation didn't plan for long N.Y. stay

  • Melanie Oudin's coach says hotel only booked for 12 days
  • Marriott Marquis was fully booked as Oudin moved into quarterfinals
  • Teen moved next door to InterContinental hotel
  • Oudin plays in quarterfinal match Wednesday evening

9 ways to celebrate on 9/9/09

  • Vegas hotel offers to marry off 99 couples at 9:09 p.m. for -- what else -- $99.09
  • Nine a key number in baseball
  • Multiply any single digit by 9 and add the resulting digits, you get 9
  • Last single-digit date for 92 years

Jon Gosselin on abuse, love and Dr. Phil

  • I love girlfriend more than I did wife, Jon Gosselin says in a television interview
  • The only therapy Kate Gosselin would agree to was with Dr. Phil, he says
  • Jon and Kate Gosselin have been going through a bitter break-up
  • The pair star in the reality TV show "Jon & Kate Plus 8"

Web goes ntus for 'Crasher Squirrel'

  • Couple had set up camera to take their photo with mountains as backdrop
  • Squirrel pops up in front of camera, is snapped
  • Photo appears all over the Web, will be in National Geographic
  • On question of authenticity: "You can't make this stuff up," woman says

4 comments:

Julie said...

I LOVE this. I think I would be really good at bullet-izing stories that actual reporters research and write, too. Is that a career? Either way, I can still enjoy the competent bullet work of others and will probably start visiting CNN.com.

Julie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
BEM1212 said...

a couple things. I hate these bullet points because it drives me crazy that people (including me) now have the attention spans of pigeons. Read the damn news.

However, I love these (and it's funny you just noticed them cuz they've been around for at least a year, signaling the suckiness of CNN (see previous post of things I gave up on), in my opinion, a while back) because CNN's headlines are always catchy but the stories are lame and pointless so I can read them and get the jist without wasting my time on their stupid "news" items.

Also, haha. Julie likes bullet-pointed stories? Jon, can I get some snark?

Fourth, kudos on your selections. Quite good. And hilarious. And great examples of how stupid CNN has become.

KNH said...

to further your CNN soapbox... all of these stories were in the Top 10 popular stories, and I think most of them were in the Top 5 - #1 was Crasher Squirrel