Dear MSNBC,
I have been subscribing to an SMS feed of “BREAKING” news for about several months now. I thought this would be a fine way to stay on top of urgent, important news stories that I might not spot for a while in other online media I browse but which would be pushed to my phone by MSNBC.
It has become painfully obvious, nowever, that you have no idea what the term “breaking news” means. It means something newsworthy (“news”) that is not only happening Right Now, but about which there is a sense of urgency for folks to know about it (“breaking”).
Here’s what’s been on your “Breaking” News feed since 14 May (a bit over a month):
- (1) each about Pakistani terrorist supporters arrested, Huckabee declining to run, Newt’s advisors fleeing him en masse, the winner of the Belmont stakes, Harmon Kellebrew dying of cancer, Hillary Clinton seeking presidency of the World Bank, Gabrielle Giffords being discharged from the hospital, Boston winning the Stanley Cup.
- (2) about Mississippi flooding.
and (here’s where your Breaking News is Really Broken):
- (4) about IMF chief Strauss-Kahn being arrested for sexual assault (or being denied bail, etc.)
- (5) about Rep. Weiner’s sexcapades, including two today about his being rumored to be resigning, then actually resigning.
Now a lot of the above are not really “breaking” but it’s clear that what really constitutes “breaking news” is, in fact, sex. Sex scandals, in particular. As in, nearly half of the “breaking news” items over the last month were about Strauss-Kahn or Weiner.
Really?
No. I don’t think so.
Thanks, anyway. Maybe I can find a push news service that will actually give me some news that’s worthy of the name.
Sincerely,
A Former Subscriber
P.S. Kudos, though, for making it easy to just reply “unsubscribe” to your text message in order to unsubscribe.