You may have heard of the sexual assalt allegations against John Travolta. I heard about it, but not in the normal way. My first indication of it was when I caught the end of a story while channel-surfing past CNN. Then a couple of days later, they made a passing reference to it on The Daily Show. So I know something bad has happened involving Travolta, but I don't know what. I thought about looking on-line, but I couldn't be bothered. Then on Saturday, I finally heard the complete news story for the first time - on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update.
I should be embarrassed: several times people have made jokes about viewers who get most of their information from such fake news programs, usually with reference about said viewers being pot-smoking college students. Really though, I believe this is the first time I've heard news from a comedy program - though I have occasionally learned new things from The Onion's "American Voices" feature.
But instead, I feel like this is a badge of honour. If it had been an important story, yes I'd been embarrassed, but this is just celebrity fluff. My news outlets are so well chosen that I'm remaining informed while avoiding infotainment time-wasters. You really can tailor today's media to your own desires. Good luck making conversation with normal people though.
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