Good News Bad News No News

I love that show on OPB on Saturdays where they go through the headlines and decide: Good news, Bad news, No news. They should have a blast this weekend. I just hit my google home page and saw the 'headlines' in the news sidebar. "Obama Thinks OJ Did It"(LA Times), and "Hillary in White House on 'Stained Blue Dress' Day" (ABC News). Seriously, folks, NO NEWS. The media is sinking to new lows, and are insulting anyone with a brain. Is there stopping the constant barrage of tabloid journalism masquerading as dutiful information to the people??? A hopeless News Junkie, I have quit watching the news, switching to my Paul Simon CD's in the stereo when the talking heads, on even NPR for goodness sakes, get too full of themselves. The only survivor on my airways these days is Jon Stewart.

For the record, I don't give a hoot about whether Obama thinks OJ did it or not. Do the writers think that will make me like Obama better, if he thinks a brother was guilty and skated? I don't need to hear Rev. Wright every time I turn on the radio or tv, either. The Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons are as scary to me as Rev. Wright. So are people like Rush Limbaugh and Chris Matthews, for that matter. I think Obama has put that one to rest. I certainly hope so, anyway...he got almost the entire front page of the Oregonian today, relegating the Iraq War anniversary to the bottom quarter of the page, and plenty of air time yesterday to do it.

I also don't give a hoot about Hillary's calendar from 8-16 years ago. She did a great job as first lady, and rewrote the book on what a first lady can contribute to her country. I don't care where she was on the day Bill let Little Willie take over his brain. She's more than answered for 'all that', and has worked her tush off every day since. It's about time the media put that story in the graveyard.

Just because all this stuff is 'there', doesn't mean it has to be blasted at us 24/7. The media can choose to say, enough of that, let's move on. But they won't. Can we please focus on the big stuff that matters to every day people? Like the 5 year anniversary of GWB's dalliance in Iraq, 4,000 Americans who've been lost, the tens of thousands of walking wounded and their families, and the unimaginable number of Iraqi dead? This is top, front and center NEWS. How about the tanking economy, due in large part to the gazillion bucks funding the war? Our infrastructure is falling apart, jobs are disappearing, our environment is trashed, our world is a mess, and we're still getting crap about a blue dress. Give it a rest!

But we all know that won't happen. We take sound bites and twist them into something bad so everyone gasps, Noooooo! Everyone waits to see what bad thing will happen nexts. They can't sell it if we aren't buying. We need more people like the newly elevated governor of New York, who held a press conference after his swearing in to let everyone know he and his wife had affairs in the past. Noooooo! There it is, guys and gals. Now let's get down to business.