Making It Up As I Go Along #256

MONDAY...
— Cold day. -35 with the wind. That’s just too cold!

TUESDAY...
— Still cold but not as bad as yesterday. Busy day at work doing all sorts of things... meetings, evaluations, AFIS work. And with meetings, I work 1:00 to 9:00 instead of 3:00 to 11:00. So it’s grocery time after work.

WEDNESDAY...
— Pizza day at the office. Megan and I share one. Lots of talk of work stuff today too... not nice work stuff really. Little coming out of the warm and fuzzy feelings that’s for sure.

THURSDAY...
— CNN now does an “Eye on Iran” complete with introductory images and theme music leading in to the segment. War can’t be far off... Iraq had the same lead up from the media.
— Very slow work night. Not a good time for me to forget my MP3 player.

FRIDAY...
— Work is okay. Much more talkative, and fun talkative than the day before.
— Out in the night with Linda, Michelle, Sheila, Louis and Jaymie. It’s a pretty good way to end the week.

SATURDAY...
— Quiet day around the house. Hockey on TV is about the biggest highlight.


Big Boobs and Diapers... A Media Bonanza!
A few weeks ago I wrote about the media again. It’s often been a common topic for me over the years and that’s largely because of how low brow and insulting it has gotten. Whether it’s radio, television, print or the internet, the media continues to take the traffic accident way of reporting. Take the unusual, grotesque, or flamboyant. And ram it down our throats. The general public are indeed dim enough that, if we get forced fed something long enough, we believe it is actually important.

This week, two new items hit the news that show us all how far we’ve slipped. There’s the astronaut stalker and Anna Nicole Smith’s death.

Both of these events are newsworthy. After all, driving a couple of thousand miles with the idea of kidnapping, assaulting, killing (whatever her thought was) is a story. And obituary sections of thousands of publications tell everyone about the death of any ordinary Joe.

But these two items have taken on a low class life of their own. War, famine, and homelessness have taken a back seat to adult diapers and dead gold diggers.

For, you see... if you were living under a rock, the attractive astronaut took on a very unattractive image. Weapons and disguises were accepted. They were simple facts in a blurb that, in normal situations, would begin to lose interest immediately after its release. But when adult diapers came to light, the story took off. Immediately, the woman’s mug shot took over from her more attractive pictures. This was no longer a dark but intriguing femme fatale. No longer could we see her as a villainess from a James Bond movie. Now she took on the image as a filthy sicko. How could an astronaut drive across the most powerful nation of the world in her own filth?

New agencies bought in to it and they began selling it to the public hard. Every catchphrase was attempted... the right one would bring a journalist fame and fortune. And what does this all say about our society? We live in a culture where violence and sex are clung to with admiration. It brings us images of CSI or Law and Order. But as soon as adult diapers hit the scene, the story took on a new life. It was no longer ‘ordinary’. And people, only with the thought of a messy diaper, became disgusted. From a media standpoint, a murder would be more acceptable.

And in the same week, the only reason Depends Undergarments didn’t hit a home run was that the thunder was stolen by the death of Anna Nicole Smith. It’s amazing how even journalists... people who are supposed to tell a story with objectivity and compassion... have treated this woman’s death with so little respect.

CNN’s Jack Cafferty, segued into the story by asking Wolf Blitzer “is Anna Nicole Smith still dead?” When he was told yes, that more details would soon follow, Cafferty sarcastically remarked “I can’t wait for that.”

Others have talked about the uselessness of the deceased. That she was a gold digger... a stripper... a talentless actress... a “made in China Marilyn Monroe”. Some spoke of the ‘real tragedy’... that being the fact that her six month old daughter will grow up without a mother.

Sure it’s a bad thing that a baby will grow up without knowing her mother... but is that a bigger tragedy than the actual death of the woman? And why is it that a woman who has been ignored for years deserves the barbs and disrespect she’s receiving now that she’s gone?

In reality, the clubbing of seal pups has been treated with more sensitivity than the death of this woman. The poor defenseless seals... if a seal could ever possibly be made into a martyr, believe me, there would be thousands of them now. Foolish people sitting in their suburban living rooms with a little shrine to St. Seal the Furry. But when a harmless woman dies before her 40th birthday, she’s simple fodder for the tabloid like news agencies.

Yes it’s true that Anna Nicole Smith won’t go down in history as contributing a great deal to society, and even though I never met the woman I can fairly safely guess one thing... She deserves at least as much respect as a seal.