The weekend show on CNN Headline News sounds like it’d be one of those odd cable news stabs at comedy show if only because News to Me is something Kevin Nealon used to say when signing off "Weekend Update" on "Saturday Night Live."
Instead, the show is one of those compendium of viewer-uploaded reports along with an array of viral videos gleaned from the internet.
We’ve seen all of this before, of course. Viewer made video is a staple of Current TV and other interactive channels. Networks have been plucking viral videos from YouTube for years in an attempt to stay up with the phenomenon (and try to appear cool).
What’s wrong with the Headline News version is that it’s entirely narrated by a bald guy named Eric Lanford who adds a wacky elevated voice to everything (they felt they couldn’t leave the narration to the "real people" they were otherwise giving up their show to).
The reports seemed put together by Headline News staff as well. Instead of something from the guy who writes the Army of Dude blog, he was interviewed (via webcam, natch) while some of his stuff showed on the other screen. Ditto from a guy who went to Cuba and took some photos.
A lot of art projects are suited for this kind of coverage (which tells you a little something about the art world). And there were two on Sunday’s report, one about a guy who shoots pictures of the single shoes left on the side of the road; another about sculptures of tiny people set out in the urban landscape of London.
It’s all over before you know it and Lanford ties it altogether by talking to people in the mall outside of CNN in Atlanta, as if this is where real people congregate.
Well, it could be worse, I guess. It could be hosted by Glen Beck or Nancy Grace.

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