I have a hard time figuring out what the national media deems "important".
I use to have a largely pessimistic attitude on human behavior as it applies to the media. The idea that we are all sheep, with the media talking heads being the shepherds....corralling the ideas and beliefs of the general population into THEIR pre-disposed beliefs and suppositions.
A local radio talkshow host (kudos to Mac on 1140WRVA) insists that we aren't sheep. We're just ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). After turing it over in my head, I'm, beginning to side with this theory.
I have always found it interesting, especially lately, the vast number of news items that are HEADLINES for a day or two, and then fall by the wayside, to be replaced with another, seemingly important story. To me, it seems like the "important" stories are the ones falling by the wayside with the "pablum" being the stories that linger forever.
Abu Ghraib:
Who ISN'T sick of this story? Yes, it may have been construed to be an attrocity (this author is refusing to make comment), but here is a short list of other news items that I thought were important, but were swallowed up by this "news worthy" item:
Nick Berg: http://www.intelwire.com/2004_05_20_exclusives.html
National Security: http://www.madcowprod.com/index55bb.html
Mars Rovers: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/
Sever Weather, Drought and Wild Fires: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/
Ronald Reagan:
This apparently, was the only story in the last couple months, to take the lime light away from Abu Ghraib, The 9/11 Commission and the Bush/Kerry Candidates.
Ronald Reagan will be buried today, another quickly fading news story. After watching CNN and Foxnews this morning, they both appear to be grasping at straws for the "Next Big Story". Given the general population's ADD mentality for news coverage, what will be the next big story? OJ Simpson, 10 years later? God help us all, if it is.
LLS