I love CNN – it’s a great network, and although all Cable News Networks slant their news, it’s still very entertaining to watch. But today, I lost a great deal of respect for the network.

Wolf Blitzer’s, “Situation Room� TV show, which itself is designed to hype meaningless news, is currently featuring a “Breaking News� segment about a new worm, dubbed “worm_rbot.cbq� by Trend Micro.

They are talking to security “experts� who are advising people to backup all their data, and immediately get virus definitions. Wolf Blitzer welcomed new viewers to his program by saying its advisable to immediately shut down your computer. They even compared the threat to the Blaster worm a while back.

So why am I going to vomit all over my TV screen? Not because I ate a bad lunch, but because not only does this worm not affect Windows XP with Service Pack 2, or computers with recent Microsoft patches, but it hasn’t created any real damage to stock markets or boosted internet traffic levels.

And even though it’s a worm, CNN continues to call it a virus.

Symptoms of the worm are apparently continual reboots – and there’s nothing to lead anybody to believe this actually causes data loss. Microsoft describes the worm as “Low Impact,� but of course CNN had to add that “We don’t know what that means.�

“If you can’t logon to Windows 2000, how can you go to Microsoft.com to get the patch?� Blitzer asked. The reply made to him? Well that was the best part – a CNN security expert said they could get the patched burned on a disc.

Next time there is “Breaking News� that requires this much attention, I am more than willing to advise the CNN news team myself. Although I hate to say this, FOX News hasn’t even touched this story.