What is Important?
Posted By Kathleen David on August 9, 2008
But first a quick reminder that I am still taking questions this weekend. So ask ’em if you got ’em
In the age of the Internet, one can sort out what is important to them and what they want to read about rather quickly.
I have a number of feeds that give me the news I want when I want it.
But I am rather disappointed in the American new media right now.
The Russians have rolled tanks into Georgia after rebels within the country were attacked by the government. The attacks on their own citizens are not denied. The Russians claim that they are helping the rebels against an oppressive government. I don’t care what they claim, the Russians want their Black Sea ports back and will use any excuse to do it.
14 people were killed in Texas in a bus crash and 40 were injured. The front tire blew out causing the accident. This was a group of Vietnamese Roman Catholics out on a pilgrimage.
The Beijing Olympics opened to much pomp and circumstance. The fireworks were amazing as was the pageantry. Cecil B Demille would have been proud.
Oil fell and the dollar regained some of its lost value. The Stock Market looked better than it has in weeks. No banks failed.
Oh and the Attorney General’s office finally apologized to Dr. Steven Hatfill after destroying his career by labeling him as a person of interest in the Anthrax attacks. Sure the government paid him and his lawyers a whopping sum of money since he can no longer find work in his chosen profession but they still hadn’t said that they were sorry about the matter. For six years he has been living under a cloud of suspicion that cost him more than one job and made him a pariah in his scientific community. That one is buried in every newspaper in the country and it should be up there for all to see.
And what is the first story on all the feeds?
John Edwards didn’t keep it in his pants. And not only that but he did this back in 2006. This is not a current affair but something that happened two years ago to someone who is no longer running for political office. What is the frelling point other than to have yet another Democrat that the Republicans can point to as a moral failure and therefore that must be true for the whole party? That is the only thing I can come up with.
There was an exception this morning. The New York Times led with the conflict in Georgia rather than Edwards. But the majority were foaming at the mouth about Edwards.
And Edwards showed a little class by admitting he was stupid and had, in his own words, “over the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic.” He admits to making some really bad calls and hurting his family. This is the story that should have been on page 6 or even the gossip pages rather than front page news.
I am grateful I can read the news that is a little more important than yet another old sex scandal.
To me, the main point is not what political party he’s affiliated with, it’s what sex he is – male – and is directly related to the extreme ego-stroking involved, which contributes to losing sight of one’s own true values.
The overreporting of the Edwards story is, in part, due to the way it was ignored by most of the mainstream media. Since the New York Times wrote a story that alluded to allegations of an affair on McCain’s part…actually it wasn’t even that good, it was that unnamed supporters were afraid that it appeared there might be an affair…it would seem that they are not always shy about what stories are fit to print.
What a lot of us in North Carolina knew was that Edwards was not that bright–or at least, his narcissim vastly outstripped his intellect. I have to agree with Mark Evanier–you’d have to be braindead stupid to think you could get in and out of the Hilton without being spotted.
Loyal democrats can only breath a sigh of relief that this dope did not win the nomination–he would have destroyed the party for 2008. Why anyone would run knowing that this was out there…well, Mr. Evanier’s “braindead stupid” description says it all.
And he’s still lying, one has good reason to suspect.
I said much the same on my blog. If this story was breaking back before Iowa I’d be able to see the press going nuts. Now? Not so much.
With his being an afterthought in the election and the events in Georgia being what they are this is trivial as hëll. But sex sells. In this case it gets viewer numbers up and sells ads. A foreign war that we’re not in? It’s just not going to excite that many viewers.
We’ve allowed our news media to become entertainment based and ratings driven. Kinda like our leaders, we’ve ended up with the news media we created and deserve.