Just Do Better: CNN

I don’t know what’s going on with CNN lately, but for the following two stories alone, the network gets a big fail, boo, and Do Better.

First, we have an update with Michael Jackson’s former chimp, Bubbles on Anderson Cooper’s AC360 show.

Yes, this was a real “news” story on AC360. Boo CNN. So this is what ya’ll are coming up with to keep talking about Michael Jackson when you don’t have anything new to report? Click here for the video. Here’s a snippet from the print version of the story:

The public might not recognize Bubbles. He’s aged since his moonwalking days. But he is alive and well, feasting on cucumbers and bananas at the sanctuary, where the care for each animal costs about $17,000. Bubbles might be out of the public eye, but Ragan doesn’t want his fans to forget him.

“Probably the best tribute that we could pay to Michael Jackson here is to just take excellent care of Bubbles, because I know he loved Bubbles.” CNN

How did this get onto the news station? Hollywood Access or Entertainment Tonight might have even taken a pass on this one. Do Better CNN.

Next, we have a story that’s part of the upcoming Black in America Series Pt. 2. Click here to read more. One of my fellow journalist friends forwarded this one along. It’s about black women choosing to adopt because hey, black women have no choice but to be alone or find some ne’er-do-well to shack up with and have a whole bunch of babies by. Why not just avoid all that and adopt? Yes, that’s pretty much a wrap up of the story. Here are a few priceless gems:

Kaydra Fleming, a 37-year-old social worker in Arlington, Texas, is the mother of Zoey, an adopted eight-month-old girl whose biological mother was young and poor.

“Zoey was going to be born to a single black mother anyway,” Fleming says. “At least she’s being raised by a single black parent who was ready financially and emotionally to take care of her.”

Yet there are some single African-American women who are not emotionally ready to adopt an African-American child who is too dark, some adoption agency officials say.

Fair-skinned or biracial children stand a better chance of being adopted by single black women than darker-skinned children, some adoption officials say.

“They’ll say, ‘I want a baby to look like a Snickers bar, not dark chocolate,’ ” Caldwell, founder of Lifetime Adoption, says about some prospective parents.

“I had a family who turned a baby down because it was too dark,” she says. “They said the baby wouldn’t look good in family photographs.”

NOT emotionally ready to have a dark child?!! Sooo rearing a child with a darker skin tone takes more of an emotional toll? Shaking my head at this story on that alone. But then I read the Snickers bar comment. Aww lawd again.

Who approved this story?

A few more gems:

Becoming a single mother means a “complete lifestyle change,” Caldwell says.

“You might have to give up getting your nails done,” she says.

Because of course, other black women considering adopting need to know that their nail salon days might be over if they choose to adopt. That could be the real deal breaker. Forget that child! I need my nails done!

And the conclusion to the story doesn’t get any better:

Duren says she still wants to be married. But in the meantime, she can barely wait to get home to see Madison.

Her life is now shaped by purpose, not regret.

“I have someone to hang out with. I can never say I’m lonely,” Duren says. “She lies across my stomach every night, and I just stare at her.”

Sooo, what we’re supposed to get out of this is that black women are adopting because they are no black men for them and they don’t want to be lonely? But as a warning to those thinking about it, be warned that your nail salon visits may have to stop?

I can’t wait to see the second part of this Black in America series later this month. No telling what’s coming after this story – and last year’s part one.

Do Better CNN.