Fake News

By Sniffles

So we're all still reeling from the spectacle of a host of a fake news show telling the host of a financial news show that he's — well, a fake.

And the fake financial guy, with hangdog looks and a contrite tone in his voice, basically admitting that the fake newsman is right. (If you need proof, take a look at his obsequious body language in the picture above.)

Our furry little heads are still spinning over this, but not too much for us cats to send an affectionate PURR in Jon Stewart's direction for his recent service to the country. If we could, we'd jump up on Mr. Stewart's lap and nuzzle him under his chin.

We just think it's really a shame that it takes a comedian to call people like Jim Cramer on the carpet. Where are all the journalists? Alas, there are none left, we fear.

No, sometimes we feel like throwing up our paws and saying that nearly all the news we run across these days is fake. Cable news networks single out young female murder victims and mysteriously decide that we're all supposed to care about them. T.V. news anchors tout Springfield, Illinois as the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln. A gay escort from a defunct website gets White House press credentials and is called on — by name — by George W. Bush. Brian Williams asks his viewers what stories NBC Nightly News should cover. (What is that — the Tony Snow school of journalism? "I don't know, what do you think?")

At the risk of sounding like fuddy-duddy curmudgeons, we cats have to ask: Whatever happened to good old reporting? Or, as Jon said last night when Cramer averred that corporate CEOs lied to him, "I'm under the assumption that you don't just take their word at face value. That you actually then go around and try to figure it out."

Cramer just continued to sputter and look sheepish.

We cats don't know if Jon Stewart has managed to shame all of American journalism into looking in its very troubling mirror. But we sure hope he's made some sort of difference.

After all — at this rate, the government could, say, invade a sovereign nation on a complete and total lie, and nobody in the media would call them on it!