Yesterday, CJR Daily recounted CNN’s sad performance over the weekend as “the network morphed into the 24/7 Jennifer Wilbanks channel.” Wilbanks — aka the “runaway bride” — skipped town before her wedding, told police she had been kidnapped, and then admitted the lie. To watch CNN cover the story, you’d have thought the network had The Story of the Century on its hands, as it paraded in front of the camera everyone from the mayor of Wilbanks’ hometown to “another almost-bride” who talked about “getting cold feet.” To say the least, it wasn’t pretty.
We thought that rather small lemon had been squeezed dry, but it seems we underestimated CNN’s determination to get one more drop of juice out of the desiccated fruit. Thanks to an email from a CJR Daily reader, we turn now to a story by CNN’s Internet partner, CNN Money, that takes today’s award for the Most Pointless Use of Bandwidth. CNN Money brings us the following breathless headline: “Runaway bride may forgo $250 ice bucket: Wilbanks’ 600-guest wedding estimated at $100,000; registry includes $230 platter.”
The story itself, by writer David Ellis, is just as inane: “After a three-day flight that included faking her own kidnapping, runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks now has to face several hundred jilted guests, many of whom had already bought gifts, according to several gift registries.”
“With 600 guests, 14 bridesmaids and 14 groomsmen, a reception at the ritzy Atlanta Athletic Club and a bridal registry that included a $250 Waterford ice bucket, some experts figure the wedding tab would have run into the six figures.” Sure enough, Kyle Brown, the membership director of the Wedding and Bridal Association of America, told Ellis, “Typically speaking, we’re probably talking about around $100,000 for everything.”
Ellis further reports that Wilbanks and her fiance were “registered at retailers Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Macy’s and Target.” Hmmmm … Macy’s? Target? Ritzy?
But we digress. The real question is what’s next for CNN, the once-proud home of real news, 24/7. Keep us informed — because, frankly, we’re afraid to look.
–Thomas Lang
Thomas Lang was a writer at CJR Daily.