Ed Driscoll

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Lateral Career Move

March 25, 2009 - 9:09 pm - by Ed Driscoll

The New York Times notes, “Former CNN Anchor Moves to The Onion”:

In yet another sign that the line between real news and fake news is getting thinner, one of CNN’s main anchors during the 1980s and 1990s, Bobbie Battista, has taken a step through the looking glass and can now be seen anchoring reports online for ONN, The Onion News Network.

* * *

In a recent interview with the blog CNN Observations, Ms. Battista said she enjoyed the fake reports, though she admitted: “I wasn’t sure I should do them at first.” She also advised aspiring journalists to “practice journalism, not blogging.”

Yes, sound advice from someone who will primarily be appearing in parody news clips on YouTube.

But did I just call that a lateral career move? In a sense, it’s a step up–unlike CNN (or the New York Times for that matter), at least I know for certain a news report from the Onion is false right from the start, as opposed to the MSM, where it’s necessary to (contra the Gipper’s advice) verify before trusting:



(Via Don Surber.)

Related: Gerard Vanderleun is none-too-happy with the Onion; calling one of their newest videos, “the most repulsive attempt at comedy in living memory.”

Related: “Nearly One-Third of Younger Americans See Colbert, Stewart As Alternatives to Traditional News Outlets.”

Hopefully some of the more observant young aficionados of these topical satirists will begin to wonder why their humor became remarkably flaccid and one-dimensional starting around the middle of 2007.

Filed under: Muggeridge's Law, Oh, That Liberal Media!, The Memory Hole

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1 Comments, 1 Threads, 1 Trackbacks

  1. 1. steveaz

    The Onion is our best hope for administering chronic, biting parody to popular, biased media.

    If the brand most in need of parody’s whip is CNN, then the Onion’s acronym coupled with Bobbie Battista’s unforgettable face exemplifies what they call “perfect casting” in Hollywood.

    I’m gonna tune in as ONN begins to stalk and cull mainstream media’s biased political reportage like a pack of laughing wolves.

    With Bobbie facin’ for the Onion now, this will be good.

    March 26, 2009 - 7:53 am   Link to this Comment

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