4.22.2008

All the news that's fit to print (on a t-shirt)?

CNN has launched a new feature that allows online readers to get t-shirts made from headlines. Just click on the icon beside certain headlines to order. But I noted yesterday that not all heads could be printed off and sold. Was it a matter of taste? Apparently not. While, appropriately, one couldn't make a t-shirt from yesterday's sad headline about the Coast Guard finding the bodies of 20 Haitians floating near the Bahamas, one could make one bearing news of a local tragedy, the Belle Plaines man who accidentally shot and killed his son while hunting. (Shirts can only be purchased as long as headlines are in the front page "latest news" section; these two stories are not any longer.) A more likely reason is that perhaps only CNN's proprietary stories, as opposed to wire pieces, can be made into tees.

The function did, briefly, provide some fun, however. Up until this afternoon, you could hack the system to create your own tees, something WCCO's Jason DeRusha did (his version states that he's "the best reporter ever"). Alas, the shirts couldn't be purchased that way, and it appears that CNN has implemented efforts to prevent such shenanigans.

And while we're on the topic of t-shirts and media, don't miss AngryJournalist.com's t-shirts, which suggest the nearing demise of print news with the old copyeditor's code for "end": --30--.

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