She got me cornered in the kitchen and I said I'll do anything but listen

Sitting in a sewer...and adding to it

I was trying to squeeze a chunk of curmudgeonly sulking into 140 characters and was unable to, the first sure sign that maybe whatever it was I was trying to say was too complex for the medium, plus I refuse to edit a Tweet more than twice (if at all).

Ironically it was about how disheartening I find the media these days - I stopped watching CNN and reading CNN.com because it regularly and blatantly treats human tragedy and matters of extreme importance with the same weight as ratings-grabbing fare like "What celebrities Tweet about" and have generally been happier for it but watching the trend in the 24-hour mediascape to just keep reporting, even if there's nothing to report ON has been more and more difficult.

So now we have headlines for days like:

"Someone close to Guiliana says he'll be making a statement soon"

"Guliani confirms he will make a statement, maybe tomorrow"

"Guliani makes statement confirming his intention to hold a press conference"

"What you need to know about the upcoming press conference"

"What the press conference could mean for 2012"

"Guliani aides say Guiliani eyeing press conference as setting the stage for 'Meet the Press'"

"Press Conference today....Details soon"

"Sources confirm: Guliani will stand behind podium for Press Conference"

"Guiliani Press Conference: Team Coverage Starts Here"

"Guliani: 'I desperately hope to have something relevant to add someday...like I did on 9/11'"

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!!!

Don't get me wrong - I'm all about the instant communication and access to information. To use the signal-to-noise metaphor that fits so well when discussing the intertubes, I just can't get behind confusing signal for noise and then selling people the idea that whatever outlet conveys the most noise is somehow who we should turn to when we want actual signal - when the opposite is almost certainly true.

And it wouldn't be so bad if the noise weren't so noisy that it was drowning out real signal (sometimes intentionally - everyone speaks at equal volume on the Internets, so all you have to do is speak MORE and you'll be the only truth people can find).

Anyway. When these same people report on citizen journalism, blogging and Google News as reasons behind the decline of their medium and how much we NEED big media for a functional, informed populace you have to wonder if they know anything at all or if they're just genuinely evil.

I don't mind waiting for events to actually occur before someone reports on them, call me old fashioned that way. I also miss the days when the people that produced television content trusted me to hang on to a thought for two minutes over a commercial break and we didn't have previews of what you would see after the commercial and then a recap after.

I'm sorry, if you can't follow an episode of Hoarders without constant reminders from concise blocks of easy-to-read text, it's because you're drowning in stupid.

Man, when I sat down I thought I had about 165 characters worth of rant and nowhere to put it.