CNN Shirt is in Beta!
May 10th, 2008I just now noticed CNN has a little t-shirt icon near their current top headlines at CNN.com. Sure enough, when you click on the picture, you are brought to a new page demoing the preceding headline. You can now buy “Don’t adjust monitor …puppy IS green” on a black, grey or white t-shirt in a variety of sizes.
It reminded me of one of the more recent internet crazes when “Don’t Taze me bro” was the next big t-shirt of the time. It became a quick internet sensation but quickly faded from memory.Then I realized that CNN doesn’t have to wait for the next big craze, they’ll just create one every day. And who knows, maybe one day a “must have” headline on a t-shirt will surprisingly profit CNN, and that in and of itself will make CNN news, but is this really what journalism’s come to?I’m no journalist. I don’t like to write much, but I at least know what purpose journalism is meant to fulfill. And something doesn’t sit right about this latest move. Brilliant, yes. Sophisticated? Not even close.
Look for the headline “Man makes fun of CNN; CNN destroys man’s life” on a t-shirt real soon.