I hate to admit it, but Aaron Sorkin‘s hectoring Newsroom might be right and our whole damn television news culture might be headed down the drain. Look at what happened today when the Supreme Court upheld the President’s health care plan that mandates everyone must have health insurance. CNN botched the story and mistakenly said on the air and on their website that the Supreme Court struck the ruling down. (You can watch the video or check out The Atlantic Wire’s exhaustive coverage of what happened when they called the decision wrong.) They have since issued a correction.
In fairness, every news organization prepares two packages when there is going to be a big breaking news moment and it seems like CNN got the news wrong and went ahead and published the wrong headlines on the tube and the wrong articles on the site. (Thank god we didn’t do that to poor Phillip Phillips and publish our “Jessica Sanchez Wins Idol” story!) I’m not excusing CNN’s gigantic error, but let’s think about all the times that CNN got the story right. Here are some (fake) headlines that they were storing just in case the news broke the other way that they didn’t publish. Let’s all be happy that they didn’t.
—Lindsay Lohan Found Not Guilty of DUI
—After 14 Months Jessica Simpson Finally Gives Birth to a Baby Boy
—Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Split Confirmed
—Fans Totally Content with Lost Finale
—Donald Trump Is the Republican Presidential Nominee
—Lindsay Lohan Found Not Guilty of Probation Violation
—John Carter Rules Weekend Box Office
—The Best Picture Oscar Goes to War Horse
—Sarah Palin Announces 2012 Presidential Run
—Lady Gaga Wears Jeans in First Concert Appearance
—Joffrey Baratheon Named Once and Future King of Westeros
—Lindsay Lohan Found Not Guilty of Shoplifting
Follow Brian Moylan on Twitter @BrianJMoylan
