Once again people, I'm forced to ask the question: what the hell is going on here? Is up now down? Has black become white? Did Keith Olbermann just spend an inordinate amount of time and energy in his last "Special Comment" to discussing why Glenn Beck is TV's most "huggable" pundit?

CNN has been looking for ways to prop up their sagging ratings in the never-ending cable news wars by becoming a network that actually just delivers news as opposed to "from-the-hip," unsubstantiated opinions, as long as you don't count their constant monitoring of their viewers' Twitter feeds. Apparently they are so desperate for a format change that they have consulted a former ESPN producer to suggest ways to revamp their style.

OK, so maybe a MILF Island t-shirt isn't quite your style, but you're looking for something a little bit different than the usual Lost t-shirt or Office mug. How about a t-shirt that has headlines from CNN printed on the front?

Yup, CNN.com is selling the shirts for $15.00 (plus tax and shipping). The American Apparel shirts come in black, grey, or white,and come with a little timestamp printed on the shirt that tells you the date and time the headline was created (and for you tech geek wiseasses out there, you can alter what the shirts say, but CNN won't let you order it that way). The shirts aren't exactly getting rave reviews from other sites and journalists.

Have the Onion writers hacked into CNN.com and started tinkering with the articles there? In a story about first Survivor winner getting 51 months in jail for tax evasion, this is the headline they used:

'FAT NAKED GUY' GETS 51 MONTHS FOR 'SURVIVOR' TAX DODGE

Um ... fat naked guy? I mean, yeah, he was a fat naked guy, but he's also known as "Richard Hatch" (it's even in the story below the headline). I guess it could have been worse. They could have called him that "fat, naked gay guy."

Update: I think I confused some people with this post, so read my explanation in the comments (#7).

All the cool kids are doing it.

Blogs, that is. Keith Olbermann has one, Brian Williams and NBC News have one. Heck, even Rosie O'Donnell has one. Now, CNN's Anderson Cooper has started a blog at the cnn.com site. You can leave comments, and Cooper actually seems to be updated it rather frequently, and if he doesn't, he has a guest blogger from CNN fill in for him.

[via Gawker]