I'm trying to figure out how news stories on CNN.com and MSNBC.com get so screwed up. It's 0230 here in Wyoming and I'm reading,
Israel Battles Militants as Offensive Set to Widen
This is your standard "evolved" story on MSNBC.com. By evolved, I mean it started as another story but has been added to and it's title changed as facts on the ground changed. Basically, a lot of copy-and-pasting. This causes some really strange artifacts... a lot of contradictions.
Bush calls for end to fighting
President Bush resisted calls for an immediate halt to fighting, underlining that any peace deal must ensure that Hezbollah is crippled. He said Iran and Syria must stop backing the Shiite militant group with money and weapons.
Flip with me if you've a strong stomach.
Did he call for an end to fighting or not? He probably did, then he didn't. I don't think the writer is lying. I think they're trying to modify an already-written story when they should have started all over. You get some really weird stuff!
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier in the day said she expected a U.N. resolution for a cease-fire within a week. But as she headed to Washington after a visit to Jerusalem derailed by the Qana strike, she struck a more pessimistic tone.
"There's a lot of work to do," she told reporters. "You have to get all the work done, you have to get it done urgently."
It's hard work! Here the contradiction was beveled just a bit with the sentence,
"But as she headed to Washington after a visit to Jerusalem derailed by the Qana strike, she struck a more pessimistic tone."
But then they pick (possibly) the stupidest thing ever said by a Secretary of State? This article is very nearly unreadable. It contains paragraphs I'm pretty sure I read 24 hours or more ago... which now make little or no sense.
People in the (paper) print media would never dream of modifying, adding to and re-printing a story three times a day, because they simply can't do it.
People at MSNBC.com and CNN.com can do it. And do.
Poorly. Comically.