Worthless News

The Trouble With America is that we rely on worthless news. On CNN.com today (5/5/2006), some of the top headlines were: Nicole Richie: 'I know I'm too thin', Randy Quaid drops 'Brokeback' lawsuit, and Vaughn talks (sort of) about Aniston.

Is this what our news should be? Is this the kind of news that a news dynamo like CNN should be reporting? Is this the kind of news that makes for an informed population/electorate/nation?

The answer appears to me to be 'No,' but this kind of fluff news seems to be permeating the mainstream news outlets.

The question is "Why?" and the answer is simple. It's what consumers are demanding. America is not demanding to know about the human rights violations in Indonesia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, etc. They don't want to know about tax breaks our elected officials are giving to the mega rich. They don't want to know about the 5000 people who die of AIDS everyday in Africa. They don't want to know the lies our government is spreading about Venezuela, or the healthcare and hope Hugo Chavez is giving to the Venezuelan people. They'd rather hear about Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and whichever celebrity presently has the most clout in popular culture.

We're being brainwashed into thinking that these people are important.

The result: a nation full of people who are misinformed, shallow, and stupid.

But we can change this. We can change this by getting informed, staying informed, and being active in our communities by focusing on problems or issues that need our attention: poverty, the healthcare crisis, the war in Iraq, and the many other issues that are confronting us.