Cable Firehose

I spent the better part of an hour this afternoon in a small gym with three TVs, one of which had both the up and down channel buttons missing, which meant it was stuck on one channel, in this case CNN. While I certainly understand that today's attempted explosion of a Detroit-bound airplane is a newsworthy terrorist story, a big deal with what appears to be a happy ending - passengers and crew subduing the terrorist - I can't help but complain about the way I flipped CNN into worthless firehose mode.

What they ran without end was a shot of the plane in what I assume to be a remote corner of the Motor City airfield, hazmat guy or two lurching in an out like The Hurt Locker as reality show, some cops walking and talking near the wings, and on the other side of the split screen some CNN anchor or expert talking and taking calls from other experts, but none of them offering anything but firehose conjecture.

Is this really going to be the way it is forever on cable news?

Thank God and Santa for TCM, running Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles on the second TV in the gym.

My son had turned the third TV to Nick. And it wasn't Spongebob.