Armavirumque, Nov 23, 2005 07:49 AM

Another Marie of Roumania moment

by Roger Kimball

You know the Dorothy Parker ditty:

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Roumania.

Remember how CNN flashed a big X through the image of Vice-President Cheney a few days ago when he was giving a speech?

The . . . what was it? Mishap? Sabotage? Honest mistake? Whatever, it was, as far was we know it was first reported on the Drudge Report. Quoth the White House: "Is someone in Atlanta trying to tell us something?" Fortunately, CNN, being a leader in responsible television journalism, got right to the bottom of things:

"IT WAS A COMPUTER BUG"

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song . . .

"IT IS NOT SOMETHING WE CAN RE-CREATE TO SHOW YOU HOW IT HAPPENED"

A medley of extemporanea; . . .

"IT INVOLVED A SWITCHER, SOMETHING WE CALL A SWITCHER. IT’S A MACHINE THAT WE USE TO SWITCH BETWEEN VISUAL ELEMENTS."

And love is a thing that can never go wrong; . . .

"UPON SEEING THIS UNFORTUNATE BUT VERY BRIEF GRAPHIC, CNN SENIOR MANAGEMENT IMMEDIATELY INVESTIGATED. WE CONCLUDED THIS WAS A TECHNICAL MALFUNCTION NOT AN ISSUE OF OPERATOR ERROR."

And I am Marie of Roumania.

In other words (a picture being worth a thousand):