Bad Press

As you all know, I do not make a habit of regularly writing on politics. In fact, I virtually never make it the only focus within any blog, conversation, etc., because I am no expert. The absurdities that have come about as a result of this particular combination of politicians, in the particular administration, though, has been one that goes down in history. This past week is only the most recent of a chain of administrative bloopers.

Poor Dick Cheney was just going out to have some fun hunting when the fates decided to test his hunting abilities. The fates' question: Should you be hunting quail, and one seems to resemble your friend, what do you do? Apparently, Cheney's answer was: Well, pull the trigger of course. Granted, there are many such hilarities about this situation, and many jokes have surfaced as a result of the situation; but, it is a serious situation since a man's life was in the balance for some time. I was getting used to the comments here and there about it, but I have to admit, at this point, that I'm tired of the constant rehashing and further investigation on the media's part.

Time Magazine, in the February 27th issue, has a "Reconstruction of Events" from the hunting trip. I've seen several other magazines at work with covers about it, I've seen news reports still dissecting each moment of the event itself, subsequent events, and everything else Cheney. My problem with this, of course, exists for several reasons. I'll just highlight a few.

1) Elsewhere in the world, there's a war going on, there's a state of emergency in the Philippines, there's nukes data being offered by Iran, and countless other newsworthy events. But, our media continues to highlight not only an old story, but one that in the bigger scheme of things holds little value to the American people.

2)Dick Cheney foibled...so what? Don't all humans do this? Do we all get a spot on the national news for doing so? No...know why? Because it's not important--at least not on the national news level.

3)There's been this move, most noticeable to me, over the past years from news about our political goings on to a very personal version of the same. It's like in order to get people to read, the media thinks they can add an element of drama and have that be their answer to bad ratings. Due to human curiosities, that seems to have worked because people are reading and watching. But, this case points out how much this devalues our news sources. I don't want all Dick Cheney all the time...I want to know about the serious events of the world that may have an impact on my life. Will the recovery of Harry Whittington do this?

Until Americans demand better media, we will not get it. And, unfortunately, it seems to only be getting worse as time progresses. I've been forced to reminisce about my days of Bugs Bunny cartoons and particularly the "It's duck season, no it's wabbit season" debate between Daffy and Bugs after each and every mention of Cheney and his hunting accident. I'm sure there's something more serious about his, oh I don't know, Vice Presidency that they could dig up. And the feeling I get nowadays almost everytime I open a magazine, newspaper, or turn on CNN or another cable news network is directly articulated in the sentiments of Elmer's sign...I give up trying to find a quality source of news.