Day 32: MJ Lives . . . at Least in Print

Move over Farrah and MJ, there’s real news in the world! I know what you’re thinking, how can anything be more important to your immediate well-being than hearing more about funeral details for the latest not surprising deaths in Hollywood. I say not surprising because Farrah was gravely ill and MJ has been abusing his body for decades. I visited three sites today in search of news. On Yahoo, the top stories were MJ, MJ and something relating to MJ. On CNN we had MJ, and a story about the AirFrance flight, that while yes, it is global news it didn’t really tell anything of note. Finally, on NY Times online we had . . . drum roll please . . . actual news! Hooray for a news outlet telling a story other than one revolving around a celebrity.

Check almost any news site any day of the week and the one thing you will not see is a story about the war in Iraq. These stories are buried and sometimes, more than buried, they are nonexistent in American media. We like sexy stories, we like shocking stories, we do not like hearing how those stories turn out. The news is full of things for which you will never hear a follow-up. I often wonder how a story I read about played out, but apparently no one else because those stories do not seem to exist. That is, unless something new happens.

The war in Afghanistan was old news for years, but now that things are heating up again it’s possible to actually read about it, imagine that. Iraq, on the other hand, is very old news and since it’s nowhere near as violent as it once was, the media has almost dropped it completely. I hear about casualties from him because when a soldier is killed they cut off internet and phone access until the family is notified. Once I hear about it from him, I will start scouring online sources for any news in the ensuing days and it is almost impossible to find. Most of my friends don’t even realize we are still fighting a war there, let alone that soldiers are dying.

My husband is in Iraq. Today he sent me a link to a blog about an attack that seriously injured a Lt. Colonel he knows and the related death of another soldier. The husband was part of the force that went in to help. The story was depressing obviously and tragic, but what struck me most is that it was a BLOG. This should be news. We still have thousands of troops in Iraq, most of whom are now living in poor conditions because they’ve had to move out of the US bases in the cities to makeshift barracks on the outskirts. Yesterday, he killed a rat in his room with a brick, then came back from a meeting to discover a second rat on his bed. Things are not really that great in Iraq, but you’ll never read about it.

I read celebrity gossip from time to time and if I’m at a friend’s house and see a copy of a People or inTouch I will definitely pick it up, but it’s like candy for me. Hard to resist, but not something I buy. Britney, Paris, Angelina, these are names most people in America can identify immediately, but do you know who the Secretary of State is? Do you know who the Vice President is? For that matter, do you even know who your own state Governor and Senators are? Do you know that there was another plane crash just the other day or that the unemployment rate just hit 9.5%? any chance you know what’s happening in Iran? Probably not, and it’s not all your fault.

Anyone who seriously follows global events is familiar with the fact that the American news media are not nearly as unbiased, thorough, or comprehensive as they should and used to be. I find more news about Iraq on BBC. We shouldn’t have to hunt for real news about the world behind articles about Neverland and the top five ways to be an internet star. Shouldn’t the news be news and the fun stuff be what we have to look for? If I really want to find out what Megan Fox and Michael Bay’s war of words are, I’ll happily turn to the entertainment section, no need to put it on the front page.

Maybe I will start including a little news in my blog everyday for those of you who might not have had the time to read beyond Jon and Kate, MJ’s last rehearsal, or the hairstylist to the socialites in NYC. I know there is a lot of temptation and we get lazy when confronted with having to do all that searching for real news. Thank whiskey for Jon Stewart or none of us would know a damn thing about the world.