Gone, gone, gone

Millions of potential viewers are being deprived of their marching orders because they no longer watch network news. I mean, seriously, how can Katie Couric and whoever else* be Walter Kronkitish demigods, able to move public opinion in a single editorial, if people aren't willing to watch them?

But wait, it gets worse:

Michael J. Copps, the acting head of the Federal Communications Commission, said that the people most likely to lose reception [due to the nationwide switch to digital] are society’s most vulnerable — lower-income families, the elderly, the handicapped and homes where little or no English is spoken. The transition will also hit inner-city and rural areas hardest, he said.

Through one of those coincidences that makes me believe there truly is justice in the universe, the people slated to lose TV coverage (i.e. those who do not have cable or satellite TV) are the very people whose only choice of news has been CBS and its twisted sisters. Society's most vulnerable(tm) will either have no television at all - certainly less of a tragedy than it's made out to be - or will have to head down to Rent-a-Center like all their neighbors. Whatever route they choose, the result ain't looking good for the networks.

Don't know if I'll cry, don't know if I'll die laughing...

* I truly don't know. I haven't watched network news more than a handful of times in the past two decades.

(hat tip: BizzyBlog)