Thursday, March 10, 2011

Sorry, Charlie

William Rivers Pitt on the sorry state of the so-called 'news' media:

I was watching "Family Guy" the other day on the local Boston Fox affiliate when they interrupted the broadcast for the following news bulletin. I quote: "Charlie Sheen may joke about them, but witches and warlocks in Salem say it's no laughing matter. See why tonight on Fox News."

No, really. That happened.

With all due and deserved respect to Wiccans, witches and warlocks, please for the love of God give me a freakin' break already. The "mainstream" news media is so mouth-frothingly desperate to gin up a distraction - any distraction - to avoid reporting real news that the entire industry has latched on to the downward spiral of a half-assed actor like it is the end of the world. Charlie Sheen is gutting his life for all to see, the ultimate bread and circus, and the "news" is all too happy to follow the plunging arc of his career for the same reason they show car chases and house fires.

The biggest house fire of 'em all is right under their noses and goes unreported - the Repugs and Big Biz burning our house down so they can get the lot cheap and build what they want and the hell with us.

So, yeah. Labor insurrection, Town Hall rage and a gubernatorial meltdown in Wisconsin. Vicious persecution of an entire religion in the House of Representatives, complete with Japanese internment victims standing in defense of Islam. Death and destruction continue unabated in Iraq and Afghanistan. Oh, and we can hold anyone we choose in Halliburton cages for as long as we like without trial or legal representation, because Mr. Obama seems to think Mr. Bush was right when it comes to human freedom and the rule of law.

But no, let's talk about Charlie Sheen being an F-18 deploying his ordnance to the ground.

Actually, he's an F-18 deploying his nose into the ground in a screaming sound barrier-breaking dive that will break out of the cloud cover at 100 feet. It will be over so fast we won't even get the satisfaction of getting to see the confused look on his face. Alas, but the sooner we get that over with, the better.

This Just In: America is dying, and the "mainstream" news media is the one sticking in the poisoned dagger.

Oh, and Charlie Sheen can kiss my ass. Get a room at the Betty Ford Clinic already, stop beating up women, get your act together, and get out of my face.

While I agree with Mr. Pitt that Sheen can kiss my ass, I disagree in that I do not think the media are the ones sticking the poisoned dagger in us.

That's the Repugs.

The media are simply too scared of their corporate masters to tell us. There are pockets of truth, to be sure, but most people can't or don't or won't see them.

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