Gabriel García Márquez, the influential, Nobel Prize-winning author of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and “Love in the Time of Cholera,” has died, his family and officials said.
He was 87.
CNN reported the death of García Márquez with more or less equal weightiness as the following “top stories”:
- CNN reporter faces claustrophobia
- Is it possible to live forever?
- 7 ways to be more interesting
- See Rosie O’Donnell’s 50-lb. weight loss
- Miley Cyrus tour postponed
- W.H.: No comment on Bieber petition
I didn’t cherry-pick those stories, by the way. They were all listed as Top Stories on CNN.com.
CNN is a “serious” news outlet. García Márquez’s death was also reported in the “popular” media, amongst reality show updates, celebrity pregnancies and Kardashians.
Orwell wrote about a society in which books are banned. As it turns out, there’s no need to ban books because no one has any interest in reading one. We’re drowning in a sea of trivia.
RIP Gabriel García Márquez
