Sometimes I wonder where CNN went.\u00a0 Remember how great CNN’s news coverage was, back in the day?\u00a0 Now, in my time zone, it seems as if all you can find on CNN during prime time\u00a0is celebrity chitchat and tabloid crime gossip.<\/p>\n
But one night last weekend I stayed up\u00a0late.\u00a0 Ooh, what’s this?\u00a0 CNN Newsroom at 10?\u00a0 Oh joy, real news, like the old days!\u00a0 My happiness was short-lived: leading the news – with a full 10-minute segment, no less – was O. J. Simpson.\u00a0 I had to restrain myself from throwing the remote at the TV screen.\u00a0 Hey, CNN?\u00a0 If I want that kind of news, I can stand in any supermarket checkout line.<\/p>\n
But over the next few days, amid continuing coverage of Mr. Simpson, I’ve had time to think about it.\u00a0 Maybe I do want that kind of news, or at least some of it.\u00a0 TV executives have always maintained, when accused of pandering to the lowest common denominator, that they’re only giving us what we want.\u00a0 And when it comes to O. J. Simpson, we want it.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because he’s unfinished business.<\/p>\n