For all that CNN has done well this campaign season (and they’ve done a lot well), it’s insanely annoying that they jam the screen up with all sorts of things that aren’t why I am watching and actually shrink the size of “CNN” itself by 50%.
They’ve got this marginally useful area to the right showing when polls close and what the weather is in different states, a whole extra banner of mostly useless trivia taking up space at the bottom, pure dead space above the TV image – and on CNNHD they just fill the extra space on the sides with wallpaper.
So on my 44″ television, I get a 22″ picture of CNN. There’s a reason I didn’t buy a 22″ television, guys.
I actually like your programming, so why do you shrink it by 50%?
CNN has been doing this all election season and its incredibly annoying. During the debates, they’ve got dials all across the bottom showing whether Paul Begala or Donna Brazile or the token hispanic Conservative guy think second-by-second about what’s being said. Why the fuck do I care about that? And they run equally useless faux-stats up and down the sides. This kind of data — not information — overload is just noise and renders the actual coverage of the newsworthy event (were there any) unwatchable.
In the interest of full disclosure (unlike CNN, I disclose my bias): Of course, I can’t stand CNN’s programming.