Reading the New York Times Online this morning as always, I noticed something disconcerting.  On every page I looked at, be it an article covering news, medicine or travel, there was Angelina Jolie’s smiling face staring back at me.

CNN has literally pasted Ms. Jolie’s face on every article in today’s times online that doesn’t concern the death of American soldiers.

And don’t be fooled by the small, scaled-down image you see here.  These ads are obnoxiously huge, taking up a good 30% of my screen space.  On some pages there were two of these ads, one banner on the top of the page and another on the side.

It all just makes me wonder, do we all really care that much about Angelina Jolie?  Has CNN completely forgotten what news is?  Is their some executive at CNN, maybe someone who’s been there from the early days, who once believed in CNNs mission to deliver full, unabashed news coverage, who feels really dirty right now?