Really, that's not news

Sometimes I really do wonder about the news outlets we have available to us. I guess in some small way I am now part of this problem and not part of the solution. So, please, instead of a post criticizing this, try to imagine something wholly worth reading.

I am, of course, complaining about the wall to wall coverage of the release of Martha Stewart.

Last night I was watching CNN. OK, truthfully I was watching the Suns and the Pistons on TNT. During play stoppage I like to flip to CNN to see what is up in the world. Last night, after midnight, CNN had a camera crew and a reporter staked out on the road outside of the penal facility waiting to catch a glimpse of Ms. Stewart as she left. They had another crew at the airport, in case the driveby wasn't interesting - which it wasn't. A Suburban with tinted glass is not exciting.

For the last two days they have been almost "counting down to Martha" on CNN's morning show. Today they must have had a helicopter or a plane flying over the Stewart property taking pictures of her at home. I even heard them discussing Martha Stewart on Crossfire.

Really CNN, this isn't exactly news.

I'm fairly certain that CNN isn't alone in this coverage. I wouldn't be surprised (although I would be disappointed) to turn on PBS's "The News Hour" and find Martha coverage. So I guess I shouldn't be so hard on CNN.

Really the problem isn't CNN. The question here is the same as "Who is the real problem: drug pushers or drug users?" CNN is just pushing this K-rap. We're the morons that are buying it and putting it into our systems. If we didn't want it, they wouldn't air it.

What is wrong with us?

Really, who was the one that wanted to see those aerial shots of Martha today? Speak up. I'd like to meet you.

Whenever celebrity news dominates coverage, I am always left wondering what else is going on in the world. "Air America" has a promo going now with Susan Sarandon talking about seeing "Hotel Rwanda" where she posits: "what were we paying attention to then while we were missing this going on? OJ Simpson?" During the Simpson trial I kept wishing some news outlet would do a feature on all the other people arrested, tried, & convicted in the time it took to try OJ. During the John Benet investigation I wondered about all the other children murdered. During Chandra Levy and Lacy Peterson, I wondered about all the other missing persons.

It would seem to me that a news media that in a theatrical way was trying to build and educate its subscription base that the flashy cases would be a way into talking about the less flashy ones. And yet, even on an all news network like CNN, what we seem to get is flash.

I wonder who else was released from prison today and what they found when they got home? I bet there are plenty of interesting stories there. I also bet we don't get to hear them.