Woe unto me! Anna Nicole Smith is dead! Unless you have been living under a rock or something, this is all you have heard about on the mainstream news networks (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC). My question is, what the hell is all the fuss about? Isn’t there anything better out there to spend millions of dollars of broadcasting on? This just goes to show you how stupid mass media thinks the public really is. A former stripper takes more precedence in our news now than other things going on in the world.
I read a lot of news from a lot of different sources, and I understand that there is a place and time for light-hearted news stories. I think Smith’s death should be filed under that. There have been some important things going on in the world since Smith’s death.
Let’s see, three U.S. servicemen were killed in Iraq. How do you think those soldier’s families feel knowing that their children’s sacrifices were overshadowed by a piece of tawdry, uneducated trash with money? That really irks me.
Another story that never got much exposure was the story of Chief Warrant Officer Jason DeFrenn’s family. Fox News did run a small story about this on its Web site, but other than that it was nothing more than a very minor footnote to a rich person’s apparent drug overdose.
Defrenn’s Apache helicopter was shot down over Iraq on Feb. 2, two weeks before he was supposed to come home. From the grief of her husband’s loss, Defrenn’s wife, Jenny, went into labor early, giving birth to a boy. If anything, this should be a story we should pay attention to; Ms. Defrenn’s story is not a new one. There are hundreds of military wives who no longer have their husbands. Many children will never see their fathers because they were born while their fathers were in Iraq.
Where is the outpouring of celebrity remorse and comments about these people? Where are the hundreds of flowers laid on Defrenn’s grave? Where is the speculation of experts on how this child is going to be raised and how Jenny Defrenn will deal with raising a child herself? This makes me sick. It is utterly dishonorable for the news media to showcase the life and times of a sluttish, conniving and stupid tragedy of a woman. It is very clear that Smith killed herself through the use of medication and alcohol. She idolized Marilyn Monroe and simply replicated Monroe’s death, albeit without a pool.
This brings me to another point. This gutter journalism is not news, just gossip, and showcases the fact that we are not a nation at war but a military at war. Where are the stories showcasing lives of brave soldiers? Man, servicemen die each week and they’re given a mention only as a figure, like the price of oil for the week or how the Dow is doing.
It’s about time that we stop allowing ourselves to be forcefed this regurgitated and biased form of “news.” If anything, read the BBC Web site for news. It’s very interesting to get news that is not from an American perspective, and it’s not great to hear about K-Fed and Britney when trying to really learn about the world. Drudgereport.com is another great site. This is just a collection of the days stories in a very convenient Web site.
These massive news agencies are interested in one thing: ratings. They don’t care what kind of mediocre piece of trash they drag onto your TV screen, as long as it is provocative and can lend itself to having panels of experts dragged on air to discuss common-sense things at length and then add a few sound bites. That is not news. The Anna Nicole story was just too easy. All the journalists at the big news agencies must have taken the week off last week. Shame on you, shame on you.