One thing he is leaving out is that another way to fill the news-time is to Sensationalize! The Heck! Out of Things!

Also recycle, reuse, repeat, reiterate, recap, and … did I mention repeat?

One thing he is leaving out is that another way to fill the news-time is to Sensationalize! The Heck! Out of Things!

Hence, you get the ongoing Caylee (or whatever her name is, or unfortunately, probably WAS) Anthony search-stories. Yes, it’s sad. Yes, it’s tawdry and awful. But unless you’re related to the family, involved in the prosecution of the case, or even in the same general area, why exactly does it matter? Yes, sometimes bad things happen to small children. Yes, sometimes parents (probably are) guilty of crimes. What was once general (bad things sometimes happen to kids) has been turned into a very specific spectacle for the delictation of a particular type of person. (I assume people must care about it and pay attention to it or they’d not continue to show it.)

But this is the kind of stuff we used to read novels for, I tend to think. At least in novels much of the time you get the “redemption moment” where you learn something or come to understand human nature better. Watching the Jerry-Springer-ized news of today, I only feel sad and isolated and more wanting to go live in a cabin in the woods so I can avoid my (apparently) increasingly nutso fellow humans.