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The News and Non-News Take a Toll on Viewers
Thursday, October 24, 2002
By Kevin Cowherd
Sun Columnist

Watching CNN is always a visual challenge, what with all the logos, graphics, split-screens and "crawls" it employs. But this time it was even more surreal than usual. As Chief Moose, looking weary and frustrated, spoke to the media, stuff like this ran at the bottom of the screen: "Girl's Club hammered in Monday's Fox premiere ... MTV says Osbournes may be back next month ..."

If you wanted to maintain a shred of sanity yesterday as the hunt for the serial sniper intensified, the best thing to do was stay away from the TV.

Unfortunately, this was advice that I myself did not heed.

By the crack of dawn, with several cups of Folgers swishing around in my gut, I was already tuned to CNN with its comforting graphic: "SNIPER ON THE LOOSE."

Then again, this was no more jarring than the picture of an assault rifle that accompanied Fox 45's "SNIPER SEARCH" news update, where a Dr. Tyrone Powers, identified as a "former FBI agent," said the sniper was effectively telling all of us: "I'm in control of you."

Oh, it was a hell of a way to start the day.

For a brief moment, I considered going back to bed. But by now I was vibrating like a cymbal from all the coffee, so sleep was out of the question.
(More: SunSpot.net News Source)
2002 © The Baltimore Sun.

Dan