What made matters worse was the ridiculous, television unfriendly morning in the trial itself. George Zimmerman's college professor was attempting to Skype in to give his testimony remotely. But a bunch of trolls started calling the prosecutor during questioning, disrupting the call, making it impossible for anyone to hear what the professor was saying, turning the entire mess into televised garbage.

CNN currently airing a bunch of people confused over what Skype is, so perfect. — Anthony De Rosa (@AntDeRosa) July 3, 2013

There were a lot of moments like this:

This #CNN screengrab says it all: Big type 'Firearm Analyst Testifies'. Little type: 'Coup Underway' pic.twitter.com/TTsk9yLGhR — BGrueskin (@BGrueskin) July 3, 2013

CNN was taking the brunt of critics' complaints, but MSNBC, even with a military deadline approaching, pre-empted The Daily Rundown with hosted coverage from outside the Florida courthouse, and they weren't the only domestic network going full-Zimmerman Wednesday morning:

All three major cable nets on Zimmerman trial live, fwiw. — David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) July 3, 2013

And, to be fair, for a while some of the prestigious international networks we expect to be more sophisticated were ignoring Egypt in favor of Zimmerman coverage, too:

For everyone attacking CNN for showing Zimmerman… RT @rafat: While Egypt burns @AljazeeraE is showing...sports and random news?! — Joseph Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) July 3, 2013

Hey, Al Jazeera English is finally live from Egypt. — Alex Fitzpatrick (@AlexJamesFitz) July 3, 2013

Incredibly, neither the BBC nor Al Jazeera are airing the Zimmerman trial. — David Colton (@DColtonNow) July 3, 2013

By 11 a.m., questions were being asked. Why are CNN and MSNBC so obsessed with this trial? And, truthfully, it's because of ratings. They're both still getting walloped by Fox News, and stories like Zimmerman and Paula Deen are working for them, even if that kind of programming can be deeply misguided. The American cable networks, at this point in their business re-alignment and endless competition, are not interested in driving the most important news so much as the most watchable news. Lord knows we've covered CNN's descent into full-on poop cruisedom here in the past, but there was always some balance, always some balast that you knew they were aware of the importance of international news, that it didn't go ignored, or completely relegated to the corner of the screen. But today was the first time — even after forgoing State of the Union preparation for the Chris Dorner manhunt, even after days of running the Zimmerman trial for hours on end — that CNN was really running with it, real news be damned. As Politico's Dylan Byers explained, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News are just giving the people what they want:

The truth is, CNN's programming decisions aren't a reflection of CNN so much as a reflection of the American people, more of whom care about a domestic court trial than about the historic events taking place overseas. Right now, CNN International is broadcasting wall-to-wall coverage from Egypt. The fact that CNN's domestic channel isn't should tell you what executives there think about the American people's interests. And sure, CNN could take the lead and cover what they think the American people should care about, but that's not necessarily a great business strategy.

Networks executives, try as they might, can't change what people want to consume, and it was only a matter of time before the same people who turned celebrity news into the beast it is today claimed the real news, too. This is the Stars: They're Just Like Us! moment for things that actually matter.