It always seems like the news is trying to sell something. The news itself doesn't have a problem of telling you what's going on, but there is always that time where the seem to think that selling to the masses is more important than what is going on. This is a pretty big issue in a lot of things related to news, so what better way to tackle journalism than with journalism.
First off, we need to recognize the problem. Do you remember when the news stories get really depressing, something like a boy dies in a fire trying to save his cat (remember cats for later)? Then all of the sudden they say something like "In other news, Sea World has opened up a new squid exhibit." If you haven't seen that, either you don't look at the news long enough or you don't pay attention to the changes they do. They talk about the most insignificant things right after an actual story. I'm seeing right now that they just had "12 weirdest smartphone cases" on CNN's web page for some reason. This is right next to a topic called "Truck drivers smoke out cyclists, Prius's." They are blatantly stating that the fact that these people are blowing smoke on people and Prius's to make a statement on how they think we're wrong about the environment and we should keep coal is just as important as how your iPhone would look in one of those cases.
Speaking of selling stuff, do you remember when I said remember cats for later? Well there is this cat named Venus that has two different halves of a face, one black with a green eye, the other orange with a blue eye. She is believed by many to be a chimera, a mythical creature that can be sum as two or more species in one package.

She was around for a while apparently, but the news was finally able to get an interview with the woman that discovered her. There have been no tests on Venus because the owner doesn't want to put her through that, which I can understand, but it makes for a pretty boring interview. I started to wonder what the point if this was seeing how there is a Facebook page and blog dedicated to this cat, but that's when they brought up the merchandise. They stated that there are now stuffed animals based on Venus on sale. What probably would have made this an actual news story is if they brought up the cat in the news they were already doing, and maybe go in to whether it could be considered a chimera or not. But no, just buy the Venus doll.
Well, that is what they are trying to do. They want you to buy stuff you don't need. That's consumerism. I like how some journalists took in upon themselves to call them out on it, like Jon Stewart on "Crossfire" (I saw the arguement in the "Elements of Journalism" book and thought it was hilarious). We should all stop buying what they try to sell, because the power to say no to consumerism is a powerful thing. Unfortunately, That doesn't mean it will disappear, it will just show up in whatever is popular. At least it won't be in what is supposed to be the place you go for facts.

 Links:

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2014/07/08/erin-pkg-moos-rollin-coal.cnn&hpt=hp_c4&from_homepage=yes&video_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/09/tech/mobile/wacky-phone-cases/index.html?iref=allsearch
 http://video.foxnews.com/v/3665820021001/fox-flash-two-faced-cat-a-hit-on-facebook/#sp=show-clips