Does it disturb anyone else that, while we have one and half wars going on, a president who is out trying to “mend fences” and failing and several places in California failing off into the ocean, that the top two news stories this morning were:
- A man with a supposed direct link to God, the most holy person on the planet (supposedly) and all around buddy of God, might die.
- A man who was once black, but did his best to not be black anymore, doesn’t have a black person on his jury.
Thats right folks the top two news stories this morning were the Pope is sick and Michael Jackson doesn’t have a black person on his jury. Forty-five minutes of news this morning was devoted to these two topics. Everything else was running by on the crawl line.
Now I think that both stories are a little ridiculous in the supposed importance of them. The first one is a story about an 80 year old man with parkinson’s disease who has gotten sick and everyone is praying for him to pull through. I don’t really understand this. I mean the christian religion is all about, “When your time on Earth is done, you get to go to heaven and be with God and Jesus” so why are they praying for him to live more? I mean the man is in obvious pain and suffering, he is supposed to be right with God, why not pray for him to go? Then when he gets to heaven he won’t have the troubles he does now. Kinda sounds to me like some of them don’t believe their own hype, and if you don’t believe that then what is the point of subscribing to the religion?
Jackson’s Jury is a whole other area. Why is the fact that there are no black people on the jury for a man who has obviously tried hard to remove any black heritage that he had, such a big deal? His trial is being held in a county, where the black population is almost non-existant, and that county is where he chose to live. He picked the spot. He has lightened his skin, he has hacked up his nose, cut up his chin, and straighten his hair. Why now is he attempting to lay claim to the fact that he is black? Here take a look at what he has done to himself in order to not be black:
Does that look like someone that cares about their black heritage? Just because we remember that he used to be black, doesn’t mean that he deserves to be judged by a set of people of that heritage.
Why are these stories news? Is it to distract from the other things, or just because we as a society don’t care about things that are real?
Because nowadays, nothing is news unless it has some sensational value. Serious news is all but dead – all we have left is tabloid journalism – which sadly sells pretty well. Part of the continuing ‘dumbing down’ of the nation.
And I agree with the MJ comment – who cares what color the people on his jury are?!
I think the news of the Pope is correctyl placed among the top stories. One reason is his influence of multi-millions of worshipers. He probably has more influence than anyone else on the planet.
Concerning the M. Jackson case, they are probably setting it up so they will be able to cry racism if he is found quilty.
I think Rupert Murdoch has the Pope beat. Consider that anything Murdoch wants to amplify on his millions of media (TV/radio/newspapers/satellite) outlets instantly gain greater focus and viewership. In the words of another latter-day media baron (William Randolph Hearst, to wit) – “You supply the stories, I’ll supply the war.”
Catholics may be a large majority in the developed world, but lets not forget that the developed world actually accounts for a smaller percentage of human beings than the developing one. I realize that lots of Asian and African countries have large catholic congregations, but I can tell you (as a first hand product of eastern catholicism) that the religious effect is different from the one in the west.
I’m not denying that the Pope has tremendous influence – that goes without saying. But I think that the influence of global catholicism has waned when compared to global activism. FOr example, catholics across the world may be united against anti-abortion or birth control (for example), but if Murdochs’ media bombards the east with a barrage of stories on gay priests in the west, that has the ability to cause a large rift between the geographical faithful.
Never underestimate the power of the Fourth Estate.