The absurdity of the "and now, this..." culture of broadcast news is really brought home when you see a major global conflict brewing. And the online world is far from immune.

On the My Yahoo page (before logging in), the top news items flash from one to the next, interspersing a couple of lighter items. So you have a "choice" to click on the story showing Mr. T. flexing his muscle (yes really), or the Hezbollah leader's home getting blown to smithereens.

I'm not sure I want to see the data on how many people clicked on T.