Posted 5:25 PM by Gene

The PROFIT CENTER of the last ten days shows us there must be a way for us Internet users to avoid stories we don't want to hear about, if only for our sanity. The danger, of course, is that one uses such means to avoid unpleasant but necessary stories; but when the hacks focus on making money it becomes extremely necessary. I thus propose that any news organization institute a filter on its Web site to let the reader keep out unwanted stories. A filter's advantage is not only could you keep out PROFIT CENTERS, but the kind of parasitism that goes hand-in-hand with them: movie ad-blurbs, rock-musick ad blurbs, TV ad-blurbs, stories praising anything Hollywood, stories of over 1,500 words that sell something, stories on personal tragedies involving private citizens, stories on the AD BOWL or eating competitions or TWITTER!!!!! and other fads, stories on sudden idiot pundit manias like SARAH!!!!!, soft features on politicians news hacks like (although that would keep out nearly everything on His Omnipotence, but that's a chance one must take) -- and above all, the unavoidable videos that show little and say less than. Heck I'd even turn to USAOKAY!!!!!.com during a manufactured crisis. If junk stories get shunted off to People.com or TMZ.com or the Web fanzines -- who cares? They can have them. With filters in place and enough people using them the hacks might learn to report less on what THEIR CEOs need and more on what WE need -- and even then it's doubtful. Anything, however, to avoid the obsessions and total MALFEASANCE of the last ten days -- and the last TEN MONTHS.

Which reminds us -- DESPITE the PROFIT CENTER, TWX down $0.82 (even with the Cable Nuisance Networks and TMZ), DIS down $0.56, GE BANCORP down $0.47, CBS down $0.31, VIAB down $0.61, NWSA down $0.37, GCI down $0.12, CMCSA down $0.60 -- and poor old MNI down $0.03 to $0.44. AND SNE down $0.93. GOOD!