This post is going to be a rant against the mainstream media. I am not going to criticize writers for political viewpoints (differing opinions make life interesting). But, I will criticize them for their shameless promotion of sensational news stories as being essential and informative when they certainly are neither.
For instance, I was just on Yahoo!'s home page, innocently trying to locate the news when I was bombarded with the tremendous beard of Brian Wilson (he is a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants). Why was he front-page news? Did he start a charity or cure cancer? Nope. He designed a new pitch.
What the hell? Brian Wilson's new pitch is not worthy of being on the front page. It has not revolutionized the way we live (like the coming advent of nuclear fusion will, for example). It is not a life-saving gift to mankind like the polio vaccine was. It has not fixed the deadly catastrophes in the Ivory Coast, Libya and Syria. It has not helped the people in Japan. It has not solved our public debt problems.
Wilson's pitch, has made a dull game slightly more interesting. Big deal.
I have no problem with sports coverage; I am a huge soccer, tennis, basketball and football fan. However, what I have a problem with is the fact that sports (and other less-important things, such as pseudo-scientific studies on how to achieve relationship bliss) are being pushed on us by news agencies as being crucial to our lives. I fail to see how Brian Wilson's pitch has a place on Yahoo!'s home page while the crisis in the Ivory Coast does not. Maybe one of my readers can explain this to me.
Over the years, I have noticed that many stories our news institutions report on are not necessary. (When I say "necessary" I am essentially referring to things that have a profound impact on our lives and humanity in general). Here is one such crappy story: a couple weeks back on Yahoo!'s front page, the reporters were making a big deal about the anguish of a celebrity whose dog recently died. That's certainly sad for the celeb, but does it matter to you? It shouldn't because that celeb probably doesn't give two craps about you. Additionally, you should not care because you never met the dog, and because that dog's death has virtually no impact on your life or on mankind (that may be harsh, but it is true).
The war in Iraq, however, was not anywhere to be found on Yahoo!'s front page, though. In fact, many times, I have a hard time finding it anywhere. This story SHOULD matter to you and it SHOULD be everywhere: your tax dollars are paying for it and your leaders are sending your countrymen over to Iraq and Afghanistan to die for oil (or freedom or whatever other crazy excuse our leaders can come up with).
It seems to me that the mainstream media has been side-tracked by ratings. While I understand that news agencies need to make money somehow (sports and sensational stories help this) I do believe they have gone overboard with these promotions. Again, I want to reiterate that I do not have a problem with the reporting of sensational stories: the problem is that they are marketed to us as being crucial.
I should acknowledge that part of this problem falls on us readers as well. After all, if we did not have such a high demand for non-essential information, news agencies would not really benefit by publishing them.
What I am saying is that we Americans (readers and reporters alike) need to get our priorities straight. It is a sad commentary to me that we care more about a baseball pitcher's slider than what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, our own government's inner-workings, and other economic and social issues that are sending our country down the toilet.
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