How Far They've Fallen

I have had occasion in the past to comment on how Headline News is now nothing more than a pale, and fading, shadow of the excellent service it once was. Here's more proof, as if more proof is needed. Last night, in the wake of the Iowa Caucuses, I was hopping amongst various channels, and here is what I discovered, at about 10:00 p.m. Central Time:

CNN - Barack Obama's victory speech
MSNBC - Barack Obama's victory speech
BBC World News - Barack Obama's victory speech
Faux News - Barack Obama's victory speech
C-SPAN - Hillary Clinton's defeat-is-victory speech
Headline News - Britney Spears's latest foible

'Nuff, I think, said.

Today's W.O.T.

It so happens that I was online this morning as Headline News, which used to be good but now is largely just a shadow of its former self, was reporting on the death of Evel Knievel. Which prompted me to hop over to the HLN website and waste my time sending them the following:

Hello... I have noticed that HLN now has so much stuff stacked at the bottom of the screen (heads, subheads, sports, and the ticker) that the subject oncreen is virtually obscured. People are talking, but we can't see their mouths. This morning you showed us childhood photos of Evel Knievel, but why bother--we can see only his eyes! Please consider a redesign that will allow viewers to actually see the whole picture! Thanks.

Does anyone else not find it disconcerting to watch talking heads without mouths? Does anyone at HLN watch their own broadcasts? (Heaven knows, I watch a mere fraction of what I used to. It's not that I mind the relentless fluff of "Morning Express with Robin Meade," or the incessant shriek of Nancy Grace (can't they afford a microphone for the poor woman so she doesn't have to spend the whole evening yelling?), or the half-baked goofball rants of Glenn Beck, but...oh, wait a minute: It is that I mind those things! I also object to a channel that calls itself Headline News having to interrupt its primetime programming to bring me a few seconds of, you know, news--there's something seriously wrong with a "news" channel that has to take news breaks!!) Does anyone at HLN have any recollection of the vastly superior product that they used to produce?

Well, obviously I know the answer to those questions. It's the same as the answer to the question Will today's W.O.T. prompt any changes in HLN's graphic presentation.