Over the past two weeks or so, as the 24/7 "press" made sure to cover every second of the latest non story, including around 10,000,000 articles on the subject (just like the runaway bride, or any of the missing pretty white women stories), actual, you know, news happened that was more than worth reporting and letting the public know what may actually have an impact on their lives.
And since we have been subjected to every movement, every meal, every talking meatstick's opinion - all of which have amounted to absolutely nothing and an utter waste of the past 10-14 days, there certainly has been a lot of newsworthy events (and I don't mean more staged managed events meant to cover up the true mess that is still the Gulf Coast one year later.)
For example, on August 15 (around the same time that this latest clusterfuck of a news story surfaced), it was reported that Iraqi civilian deaths hit 3,400 in the first half of July alone. This made July the worst month on record, with an average of 110 civilians killed per day. And just yesterday, a car bomb and "sectarian violence" claimed the lives of at least 50 people, including 8 US soldiers. And that doesn't include several more "incidents" which left many more people dead and wounded.
Also in Iraq news, it was barely reported that Iraq has a major fuel crisis and has to double its funding for IMPORTING fuel, as a result of record oil and gasoline shortages.
But why stop there? We also had the tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon announced right before "all-Karr-all-the-time", and a renewed war of words between Israel, Syria and even the UN and Lebanon.
Remember Afghanistan? Well, things aren't going so swimmingly over there, not that you would know from the less than 62,000 overall articles on Google News. But alas, there were a few suicide bombers targeting NATO troops over there recently, including one earlier in the month which killed 21 civilians in addition to another one targeting NATO troops just yesterday.
How about that other country whose first three letters are "I, R, A"? Well, there has been some activity on their part in the area of nuclear capability. And while we are now hearing that Israel has appointed a top general to oversee a war with Iran, a House report released last week contained some eerily similar and vague language regarding Iran as similar reports did a few years earlier with respect to Iraq.
I know, I know. We only like to see deaths and destruction when it is in a movie or in a video game. We don't want to waste our beautiful minds on this type of stuff.
So fine, forget those pesky wars with the icky deaths that have all but disappeared from the news (well, never forget them, but let's move on...)
What about the huge ruling that declared Bush's NSA spying program unconstitutional? Well, instead of focusing on the fact that the actual spying program is not effective and is in fact, you know illegal and unconstitutional, we get the major focus by the "media" on the supposed "conflict of interest" of the Judge who ruled on the case.
We have news that the median hourly wage DROPPED a full 2% since 2003. The same article declared that:
As a result, wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation's gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960's.
As the first of the potentially major hurricanes is about to hit the southern part of the US, we are hearing how the levees in New Orleans as "as strong as they were pre-Katrina" aren't we forgetting that the levees weren't strong enough pre-Katrina either? But that isn't good enough for the pressititutes - we are seeing everyone report "live from New Orleans for the anniversary of Katrina". We are seeing too much reporting of staged managed and scripted events in the Gulf Coast, with nary a peep about how little progress has actually been made over the past year in the Gulf Coast region.
So now the press has a gaping hole to fill - no mindless story of a kidnapped white teen, a story about a "killer" that had so many holes from the beginning that it made swiss cheese envious. How about taking the opportunity to actually do the job of actually reporting on important things that are going on in the country and the world. You know, things that effect us on a day to day basis. Things that impact our future. Things that effect our children and our livelihoods.
Wait, what's that? Fugitive polygamist Warren Jeffs was just arrested in Las Vegas? YES!!!! Finally something to fill the great news reporting void.
It should be a good next couple of weeks as this non-story gets beaten to death. I wonder how many more laws Bush will break over that time. How many deaths to Iraqi civilians or US troops will occur over that time. What other bad economic news will come out during that time.
Ah, who cares, right? We have our latest story to run 24/7. All is good again in presshole land.....
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