Any lingering doubt that the national cable news channels have lost their collective minds should have been dispelled on the afternoon of March 16. While the U.S. Senate was voting that day on the Cantwell amendment, an attempt to stop the Bush administration from allowing oil drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), CNN and MSNBC were blathering on about the death-penalty ruling in the Scott Peterson case. Outside its immediate community, the Peterson case is a total non-event. And it’s not as if the Senate vote on ANWR wasn’t good video: As dutifully covered by C-SPAN, the vote was close (49 to 51 against), and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chair of the proceedings, was wearing -- and I could not make this up -- what appeared to be an “Incredible Hulk" tie. Stevens’ tie perhaps aptly describes the current state of national cable television news: an incredible junkpile.
...and, onward to the Blake decision...