Last week, actor Ashton Kutcher attempted to gain more followers on the social networking site Twitter than the breaking news Twitter page run by CNN. What started as a small scale joke became something bigger by Friday. CNN followed the quest for Twitter dominance throughout the week and when Kutcher beat CNN to one million followers, the network decided to have Kutcher as the featured guest on ‘Larry King Live’ and a general topic all day long. On Wednesday, Kutcher upped the ante when he announced he would donate mosquito nets for World Malaria Day (1,000 if he lost, 10,000 if he won); his wife Demi Moore and Oprah also donated to the cause. This is definitely a positive aspect of this ‘war.’ However, regardless of the donations made, this whole incident still seems to be a giant act of desperation on both parties’ accounts, and that move seemed to serve merely as a means of legitimizing this otherwise useless contest. Even though he is still making movies and producing television shows, Kutcher is not the tabloid magnet and trendsetter he was back in 2003 (I for one do not miss the Von Dutch trucker hats he helped to popularize). In fact, the only reason I have even thought about Kutcher in the past few months is by hearing about his Twitter exchanges with his wife. I still don’t know about any future projects in his future, but America is now more aware of Kutcher because of Twitter, a website which even he described as an ‘ego stream.’ This stunt allowed Kutcher to go on Oprah’s show and ‘Larry King Live’ and get his name back in the limelight. Since CNN could talk about the contest on their show, they could generate even more self-congratulatory publicity for themselves. Even though CNN lost this battle, they still came out winners. CNN could send out their breaking news bulletin to all those subscribed to e-mail and text message alerts, and made it a bright bold banner on their website, making it seem this seemingly pointless event was of the same importance and severity of a major event. Even in losing this contest they were able to heavily promote their own Twitter page (it has since gained over one million followers), and numerous media outlets picked up the story. Gaining more followers than an actor does not show CNN’s credibility as a news organization, and it does not prove they are able to investigate hard-hitting stories. It simply proves they are able to attract the attention of a Twitter user long enough to make them search for their page and click a button that says ‘follow.’ There was no reason for CNN to make such a big deal of Kutcher’s challenge, because it did nothing to show why CNN was credible, and the story was not important enough to warrant such coverage. To make things worse, ‘The Hills’ star Spencer Pratt now hopes Kutcher will accept his new challenge: if Kutcher gains more new followers than Pratt in 30 days, Pratt says will clean Kutcher’s house (Pratt hopes Kutcher will wash his car if he wins). It’s funny that I assumed this Twitter contest couldn’t be any more irrelevant. Now that Pratt has joined in the circus it will become even more pointless.’ At least something good came of Kutcher and CNN’s war. It’s doubtful Pratt would do anything more than invite ‘Us Weekly’ out to his house to watch him update his Twitter on a regular basis. I can’t wait to see if Larry King gives him airtime to discuss this utterly selfish challenge. Something as asinine as this Twitter war should not have taken up such a large portion of CNN’s airtime. This started as a simple publicity stunt for a celebrity, and while it’s great that a wonderful contribution was made to a deserving charity, it’s important to keep in mind this wasn’t the original intent of the competition. It was an attempt at grabbing the attention of a demographic, plain and simple. The news value of this event was minimal, and CNN should not have covered it as much as they did. I guess the stunt worked though, since we all know about the war now. Oh well, at least I’m not one of Kutcher or CNN’s followers on their respective Twitter pages.