CNN: The World Leader in...What?

The past couple of days has been filled with the story of the "Balloon Boy." There was wall-to-wall coverage on major networks, including CNN. Even after the "Balloon Boy" was found and the story may not be as true as we thought, CNN, the world's leader in news...continued reporting on the story...during one of its main news blocks.

Is it just me, or has CNN become a shadow of a cable news network? There was a time when you could count on CNN to report breaking news that meant something. Today...not so much.

Part of the problem is the nature of what they do. They are a 24 hour news station, and with that comes the need for a constant stream of stories to keep things fresh. Repeating the same stories in a short time span will drive away viewers, so in order to retain viewers, CNN made a Faustian deal to cover more "fluff pieces." At first, it provided a nice balance to the hard news CNN covered on a regular basis. As time went on (and other cable news networks came up to challenge their supremacy), CNN's balance of hard news to soft news got more and more skewed until...you guessed it, Wolf Blitzer covering the "Balloon Boy" story, even after it had became harder to take it seriously.

And with each passing minute of "Balloon Boy" coverage, it gets harder to take CNN seriously. How the mighty have fallen.