I sometimes keep the TV tuned to CNN Headline news, with the volume turned all the way down, just to keep an eye on the world as I move around my home, doing my daily things. On CNN, in our city, they take a break occasionally, and turn it over to the local station for a “Local Edition” update. Usually this “update” isn’t actually an update, because a careful observer will see that this “update” is a recording– repeated over and over during the day. But I digress…

If you ever want to know if there’s any real news going on, here’s a clue: If the lead story from the newscast is “Elephant at zoo recovering from surgery” it’s a pretty good bet that there really is no news going on. If the lead story is something as dumb as that, I usually just turn the sound off, or change the channel, or (here’s a novel idea) turn the TV off. This was the case today as CNN turned it over to the local station.

I just wish the news outlets would have the honesty to say something like this… “There really is nothing happening right now, so we’re going to bring you this story about an elephant at the zoo, recovering from surgery…”