Live from the Nuke Free Zone

I know I quipped about Kyrgyzstan being “best known for producing 90 points on a triple word score”, but we’re just a website with almost as many readers as we have authors. This is CNN here (2nd source):

O’BRIEN: Well, it looks like we’re talking about another revolution in a country some of us can’t pronounce. We’re not mentioning any names, of course. It’s kind of like Kyrgyzstan, but it really isn’t. We are calling it the tulip revolution, people power in the stands coming up.

PHILLIPS: I love tulips. Hey, Miles, was that a new portable PlayStation?

O’BRIEN: It’s pretty cool, huh?

PHILLIPS: Get a good look at that latest small wonder next.

I found the transcript and that really is the entire lead-in and discussion of the issue. What is this, CNN for high school freshmen? In another time, those might be lines in a movie or play satirizing a fictional idiot nation, but this country has transcended satire on so many occasions that satire is difficult to distinguish from reality.

Looking through the transcripts, the Playstation is mentioned on two other Live From clips the same day. That’s not news reporting, those are ads. Here the networks spend weeks agonizing over the death of Terri Schiavo, but ask for a minute to consider the sudden overthrow of a national government — ooh, Playstation!

To keep ranting about CNN, about a week ago the CNN newscritter was some freaky-looking woman who was wondering aloud just how society could allow violent criminals and sex offenders who had served their time in prison to live in areas where there are people. Augh, think!

[Update 12:35 by Tang: Removed link to article about deaths in Kyrgyzstan protests… 3 years ago. Oops.]