I lost it today

[live love laugh]

I talked to a friend on the phone. He has been house bound due to illness and is totally following the ANS saga. He started to talk about Howard Stern killing ANS and her son and I had to stop the conversation.

While that is interesting a soap opera kind of way, I told him, do you realize that Alberto Gonzales is dismissing congressional subpoenas, that 3,200 American soldiers are dead, that 656,000 Iraqis are dead and for two weeks you have been watching ANS but have not heard any of the other things I mentioned? Doesn't that seem strange to you? Which do you think is more important I asked.

I tried not to be too harsh but I wanted to remind him once again that when he sees fluff like the ANS story, he should always remember there is real news being hidden away and that even when he gets what passes for news he should remember that it is usually without context and it certainly won't run for two weeks like the ANS saga.

I calmed down afterwards and he wasn't upset but I just had to get that off my chest.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Well there is a kernel of a story in teh ANS saga

and it has all to do with the judge... my god that judge was scary... but you can bet GONZO would love him

:-)

Otherwise you are fully right... it belongs in the E Channel or Court TV, and that's it

Oh and I forgot to add... I saw that on KO... and that judge scared the living daylights out of me

[Dr.Phool]

2. It's worse than that.

I have a friend. A very intelligent woman, graduated from an elite, American university, with over 20 years in public service, including 8 years as a state representative, who wants me to run her campaign for a County Commission seat next year.

And she's following this case breathlessly!!!! WTF?!!!?

[live love laugh]

3. I know...like your friend, mine is older and I think they should know

better. They have seen real news and journalism and yet, they fall for this stuff hook, line and sinker. You would think that at least people of a certain age would be able to see through the hype.

[DaveJ]

5. Florida?

nt

[Dr.Phool]

6. Yep.

But her public service was in a New England state. We've worked together on a couple of congressional campaigns, and she'd be one hell of an asset anywhere she serves.

[geomon666]

16. lol!

Of course. It figures. This state sucks!

[question everything]

9. And to comapre ANS to Princess Diana

or even to Marylin Monroe, to refer to her as "American Rose."

What has she ever done, except implanted those boobs and pained her hair and convinced the tabloids that she should be watched and reported and covered?

But, I suppose, we all are looking for soap opera, or some, like your friend, think that they need to be informed.

Last week I was half listening to CNN but this was the only item they covered. They were waiting for the judge to announce whatever he was going to announce and that took forever. They really cannot afford to be scooped by Faux, for example.

[DaveJ]

4. It sounds like your reaction was genuine

It's hard to keep real concerns bottled up indefinitely. I'm sure Anna Nicole Smith saga is a way for him to stay grounded in interpersonal situations that he may now lack but the situation with our military is a suitable replacement with celebrity tripe. You did the right thing. :thumbsup:

[Breeze54]

7. You did great! You're a true friend...non-judgemental.

Anna's saga is just people rubber necking. That's been going on forever.
And it will continue forever. That's human nature.
It doesn't mean that people don't get the tidbits about the real issue's.
Just less of it, at that time.
But that's been going on for years and more so in the last six years or longer.
But they are getting it! People aren't that dumb....( maybe). ;)
They hear about Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.
But as human's will do...they temporarily fog over what hurts.
Iraq hurts. Afghanistan hurts. People are afraid.
The polls show that many are now awake and angry and want it to stop, imho.

I think we all need to just make more noise... get louder and keep it up!

Beat the drum hard, and sometimes in a gentle way when needed, just like you did with your friend!!

.................

Edited to add:

You said your friend has been sick, homebound. So?
Maybe he saw something about her death that was familiar?
:shrug:

[Bolo Boffin]

8. Oh, man, tell me about it.

I'm training as a closed captioner right now, and everybody's got sumthin to say about ANS. It gets so depressing sometimes. At least Britney seems to have calmed down.

[Robeson]

10. And sadly, like many Americans, he probably turned the ANS story...

...right back on, the second he got off the phone with you.

[live love laugh]

31. Even sadder? He probably had no option of getting real news. nt

[TorchTheWitch]

11. What is the big deal?

Can a person not take a time out from politics every once in awhile? Can people not walk and chew gum at the same time? If I get ingrossed in a juicey novel for a few days or even weeks should I be condemded for not following the real news even though I do that too seeing that like most intelligent humans I have the ability to multi-task? Can people not enjoy some entertainment in their lives whether it's hanging out with friends, playing sports, camping, reading, creating art, or any other myraid number of amusements without being chastised for supposedly not "paying attention"?

Has it not occurred to you that completely engrossing one's self in perpetual "important stuff going on in the world" isn't healthy? That people need a balance of work, entertainment, family and whatever other innocent pleasures they chose along with keeping abreast of the "important stuff going on in the world"?

Just why is it somehow wrong to have discussions with people that *gasp* DON'T have anything to do with the "important stuff going on in the world"? I'd personally find someone to be pretty damn nuts if they had no interest in dicussing anything at all other than the "important stuff going on in the world". I would think such a person would be in desperate need of some balance in their lives and amazed they didn't drown in a pool of depression by cutting out whatever entertainment or innocent pleasure floats their boat.

So your friend is interested in ANS saga. Big whoopdie freakin' doo. If that's what they find entertaining, good for them.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go find out if there's any new information being reported about the manhunt for the freak that killed and chopped up his wife, and I'm not going to give a fart in the wind if some people think that makes me ignorant of the "important stuff going on in the world" and/or uncaring of same. After that, I may even take a gander at whatever the latest twist in the ANS saga is and determine whether or not I find it interesting because *gasp* by Jove I can find a whole hell of a lot of unrelated things interesting. Son of gun... that might even make me rather well rounded. Fancy that.

[katmondoo]

12. Amen

Sometimes one needs a break from politics. I find it interesting what people do in the name of love. You can almost tell which one of the characters in the ANS drama would support the Bushies.

[TorchTheWitch]

13. It's actually very entertaining

I never cared a fig for ANS. Never watched her show. All I ever knew about her was that she had been the Guess model at one time, she married a wealthy old dude and she made a freakin' fool of herself in public on a regular basis.

But all the nutty characters involved, two suspicious deaths, the various legal battles in two different countries, kooky judge, perjury, sex, lies, loads of money... you just can't write a screenplay this good. It's great theater topped off with the world's gawdiest coffin adornment and a self serving eulogy.

[Clark2008]

19. Sure, it's great theater - but it shouldn't be the ONLY

thing on the news.

I think that's what's ticking folks off. We have serious matters to deal with in this country and all the cable stations are covering is this tripe.

If it were here and there and not in our faces 24/7 - if other important things were given some air time, I don't think people would get so bent out of shape about it.

(P.S. I spent 12 years as a reporter covering court for the local newspaper. I know what great theater courtrooms are. But there has to be balance).

[TorchTheWitch]

20. That's not what the OP said

It being the ONLY thing on the news is an obvious problem and needs to be addressed to the media responsible for it. Funny, I watch a lot of news and it most certainly hasn't been the ONLY thing being discussed. Has it been discussed too much on the news? Sure. Since when has the news not spent too much time on fluff? It's the fluff, weather and sports that get most people to sit through a news program at all.

The OP only related to getting snippy with a friend because said friend has been entertained by some silly entertainment, and THAT is the point the OP was making. The OP implied there was something WRONG with said friend for discussing a topic other than the "important stuff going on in the world". And if that's some kind of a big problem than shoot me now for having the audacity to discuss things with my friends that are normally NOT about the "important stuff going on in the world"... what a really bad uninformed dope I must be. Shame on me that I don't make the "important stuff going on in the world" the center of my entire personal universe. What in the world was I thinking to have a life not based entirely on politics? Hand me some sturdy horse blinders so I'll refrain from ever being tempted by anything other than the "important stuff going on in the world".

[Clark2008]

24. Fair enough.

But, the problem comes down to this: what if we CAN'T discuss ANS or the latest big-boobed blonde with our friends because we choose not to participate in the lunacy. For example, I don't know the first thing about what's going on with her, to be quite honest. Is she buried yet? I don't know.

The problem becomes, then, that I (and the OP) want to discuss something OTHER than ANS and no one knows squat about it. I'd give them their time to rattle on about it - not participating because I don't know anything about it, but then when it comes time for me to talk, everyone's looking at me like I'm insane because they don't know a thing in the world about Walter Reed or the funding of al Qaeda supporters by the Bush Administration and so on.

I guess that's the rub.

[live love laugh]

30. You are mistaken. That is not what I said. Again, you have the luxury

of being informed about the frivolous as well as the trivial.

If most had that opportunity, then there would be no argument from me. If I were able to have a conversation of the type that I can get at about ANS but it was about Bush or any political issue, then I wouldn't be as frustrated.

I am upset because the highest crimes are being committed and nobody knows about it.

[skooooo]

15. Thing is...

...for many people that fluff is the "real world." Americans wallow in it - and the media encourage it.

[TorchTheWitch]

17. If that's some people's view of the real world

then I'd rather they have at it and not go near a voting booth. If they're THAT stupid to imagine fluff is "real life" they're plenty stupid enough to eat up the media's rightwing slant without question - they'd vote repuke. Let them wallow in their stupidity and leave the real world to the people that AREN'T too stupid to comprehend it.

[live love laugh]

27. The big deal is that there are no conversations about important stuff

It's good that you are aware of the political goings on and have the luxury of taking a break. Most people are ignorant because the media is only feeding them stuff like the ANS story--and my point is, these less important stories go on and on for weeks, unlike stories about Walter Reed for instance.

[no_hypocrisy]

14. It's easy to explain: ANS is the new OJ.

I'm now convinced that there is a certain segment (regrettably notable) that needs consumption of this fluff in order to organize their world and to explain the world external from theirs. That's dire. If it isn't OJ or ANS, it would be someone else. Maybe they need to experience the deleterious effects of celebrity vicariously, maybe it's less demanding than challenging their different levels of government, maybe it's the illusion of being "media savvy". I don't know as I think it depends on the individual. But I'm afraid this is always going to be with us. Some of these people still vote and we can't write them off.

[Canuckistanian]

22. OJ was the test run that became the template

Ever since OJ, the CM has realized that they control the nation's discourse. They know they can play us like a fiddle. But only some of us.

It's the ultimate game of "misdirection" as used by even the most amateur kid's party magicians. Focus everyone's attention on something that means nothing, while concealing the real event.

That's the real trick.

[sendero]

18. Folks...

... have retreated into a cocoon of cheap entertainment. The media plays this crap because people WATCH IT. They watch it because they live pitiful lives where they devote 90% of their energy to trying to keep a job and disburse enough funds to keep the repo man at bay. They have no real life so they are acutely interested in someone who did.

That's the way I see it anyway.

[cgrindley]

21. Yeah, but the same could be said of you by someone

even more philosophically oriented. EG the war and the encroaching American fascism is nowhere near as significant a problem as anthrogenic climate change... why arent' you thinking about global warming... and so on.... I guess culminating with running into someone who is stunned by your concerns and has to wonder why *aren't* you considering the development of a coherent and totalizing hermeneutic? Why aren't you actively considering proofs for or against a supreme being? Why aren't you debating the merits of life against death?

But if you met someone like that, someone who told you that like Camus, they felt that: "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide," you would probably think that they were utterly crazy and a super drag to be around.

Personally, suicide is the only thing that has really held my attention for some time now. Not the idea that I should commit suicide--I love myself far too much for that, but the idea of the act and the idea of the meaninglessness of life in general. I've written a couple of books on the notion, and so on.

To me, if a person isn't thinking about a response to Camus' question, he or she is wasting his or her life.

Of course, we all don't have to think this way. I'm happy that you dedicate a lot of time to Gonzales. I hate the bastard myself, but he's only one small concern in a huge background buzz. ANS is there too, mostly because I need the occasional distraction or I become a super drag to be around.

[Tsiyu]

28. I see your hermeneutic

and raise you a dialectic...

Of course you can take this to the nth degree, but seriously, the fascination with one woman's life when there are so many other women on the planet does seem obsessive and is a fierce distraction.

Journalists should be making big stories out of the scandal our government is handing out, free of charge, every day. During the Clinton years, journalists had little trouble spotlighting celebrity news AND political news.

I don't watch much TV "News" and couldn't tell you anything about ANS. For my sanity's sake, I avoid the spin masters.

[cgrindley]

29. Because we NEED diversions away from the real issues

ANS is to news what having a beer is to after work.

[Tsiyu]

32. If only John Q.Public WERE exposed to the news...

...to the "real issues" of which you post.

Using your analogy, the American viewer is an alcoholic.

[cgrindley]

33. But John Q. Public has yet to hit bottom

and so nothing much is going to change.

[frogcycle]

23. ask him if he heard anything of this story...

aside from the "hard news" you mention, if the press wanted to run "human interest" stories...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x334839

[mnhtnbb]

25. This story breaks my heart--to overcome such odds and

neglect from family only to have his life 'wasted' in Iraq.

This country is seriously f*cked up.

[Cabcere]

26. Dammit, people!

Haven't you heard? ANS is the REAL news! That's what people CARE about! Forget soldiers and Marines and Iraqis getting killed every day in Iraq - that's not important! Anna Nicole Smith IS! People are sick and tired of hearing about how "there's a war on," so stop talking/thinking about the damn war and focus on what's IMPORTANT: Anna Nicole Smith!!!111!!1! :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

(I suppose I should "thank" John Gibson for the "inspiration," but somehow that just feels wrong. :puke: )