The CNN Effect

NaturalBlog has always wanted to coin a word. I've struggled for years to come up with a single word to describe a feeling of surprise at the absence of something, but recently decided that even if I could figure out the word, it probably wouldn't catch on.

So I decided to go with this:

"Newsmerized."

It describes the moth-to-a-flame feeling you get when you see the breaking news logo on your favorite cable news station, the strange lure you have to watching the same video over and over and to hearing ad-libbing news anchors read the same copy again and again. It describes when you're powerless, but transfixed.

Yesterday I was newsmerized by CNN's coverage of an air marshall shooting a passenger on an American Airlines plane in Miami.

Of course, yesterday just showed a fraction of the power of newsmerization. It was nothing compared to the 12 consecutive hours I spent in front of the TV during the run-up to Hurricane Katrina in August, trying to discern even the slightest difference in satellite storm pictures. Or during the granddaddy of all newsmerization, the 9/11 Terror Attacks, or its first ever instance, the first Gulf War.

Newsmerized. Please use it in everyday conversation.