One need not be a fortune teller, member of the media, nor have the exquisite wisdom of the late Herve Villechaize to know that traditional news outlets are swimming in challenging waters.

It’s not like it’s their fault. Consumer media consumption habits have changed, Craig’s List has taken almost every last drop of ad revenue from newspapers, Facebook is becoming everything to everyone including a search engine for news, and our attention spans have dwindled. The reasons are far and wide.

Questions abound for leaders at major news organizations regarding such issues as content, payment mechanisms, interactivity, and increasing engagement.

Some outlets have fared better than others.  Forbes.com recognized early on that it needed to diversify content to include the expected business news as well as examining things like best beaches. And while nearly every reporter at Forbes is disgusted by the beaches-esque content, readers are coming and so to are the ad revenues to pay reporters salaries.

Newsweek is an example of one that has struggled, but at least it made an interesting attempt to break through the clutter last year by putting Stephen Colbert on its cover.

Now, however, comes an interesting effort by the Bloomberg wire service’s sports division, which has launched “Mustrash Talk” featuring Keith Hernandez.

It’s in essence a video site — designed much like YouTube channel on the Bloomberg news platform — and each video begins with the statement, “When your friends belittle your team, it’s trash talk. When your friend gets Keith Hernandez to belittle your team, it’s Mustrash Talk.”

A good start.

The overall execution, however, isn’t great. Of the 40 or so mustache-tinged videos on the site, not one really makes you laugh. And if you know me, you know my qualifications to judge mustaches and lip warming-based humor are impeccable.

But still, the concept behind “Mustrash Talk” is, in fact, progressive. I’d go so far as to call it a noble effort.

So hats off to Bloomberg Sports, because even though the humor doesn’t hit the mark, it’s a fascinating attempt to break through the media clutter and overcome some of the challenges faced by traditional media today.

Here’s a taste: