News, or Not?

It seems like the “news” has been dominated by things that are at best of local interest. Now, it is one thing for your local news to cover local stories, it is alright for industry news to be covered in the appropriate forum, it is fine to have a minute dedicated to fluffy items like entertainment news. But as I write, the top stories from the Associated Press and Reuters include things that are just not of national relevance. Top stories should be important, darn-it.

So which item is more important?

Jury deliberates fate of washed-up pop star, or banking information on almost 4 million people lost and potentially available for identity theft?

Under-supervised teenage girl on international trip vanishes after being seen on the dance floor with strange men at 1:30 AM a week ago, or Supreme Court affirms that Federal drug laws supersede state medical marijuana laws?

Some movie star allegedly slugs some guy you don’t know or changes to Federal housing assistance programs may result in thousands more homeless families, some of them in a community near you?

Missing woman turns out not to have been abducted, and has been working under her own name and Social Security Number for years, or large bank buys large credit card issuer — what’s in your wallet?

Some actress wonders why tabloids care about her life at all, (oh, the irony that this is a top news item on CNN), or the mounting trail of evidence that the Bush Administration was trying to get us to war in Iraq despite scant grounds. (Think that stinks? Read this and add your own signature)

Randi put it most succinctly: The News has been cancelled.

Finally, I bring you all that needs to be said about Mark Felt, and not one, but two brokerages downgrade the company that owns Olive Garden and Red Lobster and Smokey Bones and Bahama Breeze restaurants because, among other reasons, “traditional economic drivers of the restaurant industry, such as employment levels, interest rates, wages and consumer sentiment, may be poised to ‘become a drag by the end of 2005’….” Maybe the economy is great in Larry Kudlow’s world, but here in reality-land, we are talking about whether or not Joe and Jane Average will have enough money for dinner at Olive Garden in December.