9/30/2005
News, Noise, and Fishwrap
Somehow this breakdown makes reading the news bearable for me. The thing is, there are actual news stories that people should read. Thus the "News" designation. Often the headlines don't accurately reflect the content, but sometimes you have to be reality-based with the headlines you have, instead of the headlines you'd like to have.
There are also a lot of stories that are disinformation. This could be because they're planted by Karl Rove, or the writer didn't do the requisite fact-checking, or because they were written in such a way as to beg to be misunderstood. Or it could be because it was written by the country's foremost doughy pantload, Jonah Goldberg. Whatever the reason, these stories go into the "Noise" category.
Unfortunately, some stories are there so that the newspaper reaches some minimum weight. These stories get the less than 100% flattering label "Fishwrap," referring to the fact that these pages will be used to wrap fish. This doesn't make them bad or wrong. As far as fish need to be wrapped they even serve a useful purpose. It's just that these stories, like wheels on a brick, are pointless.
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