Frida Ghitis, a columnist for the Miami Herald and World Politics Review, has recently weighed in on the John Edwards trial for CNN.

Because John Edwards is not the first powerful man to get caught with his pants down, Ghitis wonders whether dudes are just dumb, writing: "Are men stupid? How else can we explain the endless parade of otherwise successful individuals, who by all appearances seem intelligent and competent, and yet risk destroying their careers and their personal lives over the chance to have a sexual escapade?"

Ugh.

Before we hit our head against the keyboard out of frustration -- apparently, we are still not beyond genital-based generalizations in America -- let's clear up a few things.

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Yesterday, CNN's Kareen Wynte was reporting on the wedding of Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries when a young man entered the frame and suddenly made the ceremony newsworthy. The marriage, which was until this moment a non-event, immediately became an issue of importance when the boy, wearing a backwards baseball cap, stuck his fingers in his mouth and danced around. The daughter of O.J. Simpson's old lawyer and a power forward for one of the NBA's worst teams will forever be indebted to this young man for lending credibility and significance to their matrimony. [via] [@nickgreene]

Thursday! A wide-ranging media news kind of day. Ranging from Ashton Kutcher's murky Details editorship to Piers Morgan's failed interview of Christine O'Donnell to the everlasting travails of the dead News of the World, Thursday's Press Clips is all about conflict.

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This is a real CNN report from three days ago. According to the psychics, who know more about Ben Bernanke's plans in the next three months than Ben Bernanke does, everything is going to be just fine.

[@_rosiegray]

It's hard with people like Ann Coulter because yes, everyone knows her game is to get people riled up with things like xenophobia, homophobia, lies, and rape jokes, while making piles of money in the process but really subsisting on the attention, and that's precisely the trap Piers Morgan falls into during the second half of the above clip from last night on CNN. Coulter's "Just joking!" defense brings out her smuggest smile. But in the beginning, when Morgan, who's not not an asshole himself, asks about her age, her three engagements, and her hypothetical gay child, she's legitimately squirming and it is glorious -- just great television all around. [ h/t]

CNN's newest Brit and Larry King replacement Piers Morgan, 46, is expecting a childwith wife Celia Walden, 34. It's their first child together, although Morgan already has three kids from a previous marriage. The pregnancy is in its fourth month, the Daily Mail reports. Congrats are in order for Morgan and Walden! We look forward to little Piers Jr., or Larry King II, whichever it may be.

[E!]

[@_rosiegray]

You would never guess what the real lyrics are!

[@_rosiegray]

Reuters via NYT

An idea getting thrown around on the Internet is that American news networks' coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan is a form of "disaster porn." This post from Tokyo photographer Rikki Kasso's blog reposted on Tumblr sums up the argument:

Please everybody do not refer to CNN, or most American news networks for accurate updates on the development of the situation here. I would suggest Japan`s news network of NHK. Most news networks keep running the same 4 or 5 video extreme damage loops focusing on the body count and tragedy. Those are valid points as well, but to repeat them with music and logos is sickening, and now Japan has become the lead star in the American News network Natural Disaster Series.

True?

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Twitter's angry face

Surprise: Twitter is outraged about something that probably never happened. The day's horrible events in Japan and worldwide have resulted in a huge outcry of support for the victims online, but one that's been punctuated by the strange Twitter trending of the term "Godzilla." But many of the tweets, instead of the tasteless jokes one might expect in micro-blogging, are actually vitriol directed at a CNN anchor, Rosemary Church, who people think made an impolitic reference to the city-destroying fictional monster. It all seems to be a big misunderstanding.

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Just as National Geographic informs us that the average person is a 28-year-old Chinese male with no cell phone, CNN inquires, "Are whites racially oppressed?" The answer is obviously "no, stop talking," but the whole article is too credulous, worryingly so, giving a pretty nice platform to some crazy ideas, even if only to debunk them (rather tenderly). "We went from being a privileged group to all of a sudden becoming whites, the new victims,'' says a sociologist. "You have this perception out there that whites are no longer in control or the majority. Whites are the new minority group." It goes on way too long from there.

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