File this one under “surprising unions”: Vice and CNN have announced a content-sharing partnership. A new show produced by the irreverent hipster magazine’s online television arm, VBS.tv, will appear each Wednesday on CNN.com, along with archived material from VBS.tv’s international reporting.
Vice, according to their press release, is pleased:
“Most people reading this press release will think, ‘Vice and CNN, hmmm… That’s an odd pair of bedfellows for you.’ And you’d be right the ‘Hipsters Bible’ hooking up with the World’s Global News Voice is a bit odd,” said VICE founder Shane Smith. “But when we found ourselves evolving as a company and covering news stories around the world there was truly no other option for a partner. CNN was our first and only choice. In a world of hyper-partisan OP/ED ‘news’ CNN is the only one left with both credibility AND reach. We couldn’t be more excited with a partner unless it was Jimi Hendrix (nod to all the Baby Boomers out there) joining our rock and roll band.”
Apparently expressing respect for the Baby Boomers is the final frontier in irony!
Meanwhile, CNN.com, coyly praising Vice for its “very transparent approach to journalism,” has this to say on its new Vice-centric Web page:
“The staff at CNN.com has recently been intrigued by the journalism of VICE, an independent media company and Web site based in Brooklyn, New York … We believe this unique reporting approach is worthy of sharing with our CNN.com readers.”