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CNN Doomsday Video
- Published_at:2015-01-06
- Category:Science & Technology
- Channel:Asia News
- tags:
- description: If the end of the world arrives, chances are you aren't going to be watching CNN. But just in case you are, the cable news network has a video ready for the Big Sign-off. That's according to blogger Michael Ballaban who posted the purported footage online. The clip isn't much, really - just low-res footage of a US Army band playing a mournful rendition of Nearer My God to Thee, which takes a little over a minute. Then fade, presumably, to the rapture, apocalypse, giant comet impact or whatever coup de grace fate has in store for our little blue marble. Writing on the Jalopnik blog, Ballaban says he first heard about the video from a college professor who worked at CNN. He was then able to confirm its existence when he was an intern at the network in 2009. The video, he reports, is available on CNN's MIRA archiving system under the name "TURNER DOOMSDAY VIDEO" - the lingering legacy, it seems, of now-departed CNN founder Ted Turner. Of course, it's existence shouldn't be a total shock. Mr Turner has said that the same tune that serenaded the doomed passengers of the sinking Titanic would usher the world's population into the great hereafter. Still, Ballaban writes, he was a bit sceptical. "It sounded mostly like a mythic joke, the kind of thing that Ted Turner, the all-around 'eccentric billionaire' archetype, would mention offhand. Bison ranches, the America's Cup, four girlfriends at once, the last word on the last day on earth - why not?" he writes. Just in case there is any confusion, the video clip is marked, in bright red letters, with an HFR - "hold for release" - warning: "HFR till end of the world confirmed." "CNN, once ever so thorough in its fact-checking, knew that the last employee alive couldn't be trusted to make a call as consequential as one from the Book of Revelation," Ballaban writes. "The end of the world must be confirmed." Who exactly the momentous occasion should be confirmed by, Ballaban speculates, is unclear. "All we have is this bleak yet romantic farewell, showcasing both the best and the worst of humanity with all of its unsettled questions," he concludes. "Like nuclear weapons or the little safety card they give you on the plane, it's the fact that we don't know why or how exactly we'd need it that stands as the most unsettling thing about the doomsday video. This may just be the last thing that whoever is left sees, watching on whatever device remains, when humanity's last remnant winks out of existence." Echo Chambers has found no evidence that the BBC has its own end-of-the-world video. We're taking suggestions, however, at echochambers (at) bbc.co.uk. God Save the Queen, perhaps?
| ranked in date | views | likes | Comments | ranked in country (#position) |
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| 2015-01-07 | 68,694 | 37 | 17 |
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| 2015-01-08 | 162,343 | 76 | 32 |
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| 2015-01-09 | 200,076 | 87 | 28 |
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| 2015-01-10 | 216,341 | 96 | 33 |
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| 2015-01-11 | 225,891 | 102 | 43 |
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| 2015-01-12 | 230,528 | 102 | 49 |
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| 2015-01-13 | 238,755 | 105 | 57 |
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| 2015-01-14 | 243,349 | 106 | 61 |
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| 2015-01-15 | 245,501 | 108 | 61 |
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| 2015-01-16 | 246,961 | 111 | 65 |
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| 2015-01-17 | 248,467 | 114 | 65 |
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| 2015-01-18 | 249,594 | 116 | 65 |
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| 2015-01-19 | 250,591 | 117 | 66 |
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| 2015-01-20 | 252,481 | 120 | 72 |
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