Look, I get that there is a lot of news. I get that they cannot possibly report it all.

If there is a major crisis (earthquake, tsunami, etc) they I understand if the news cannot cover those poor men and women trapped over in Iraq for a night. I definitely understand that.

What I don’t understand is how most people don’t even realize how many people have died or been injured in this war because the news doesn’t cover it. Not because there is too much real news. But because suddenly fluff pieces get preference over “real” news.

Preempting news about the war for something really huge and important, I get that. Preempting it because Paris Hilton got a new boyfriend or the son of a has been 80s wrestler is whining in jail is unacceptable. Ignoring the work and the sacrifice of our soldiers overseas for what amounts to nothing but mindless entertainment drivel because the reality of a war is a “downer” is unacceptable and I just cannot understand why more people aren’t outraged by this.

We live in a world where the news is graded and judged by ratings like a fictional program so the news networks give president the stuff that they think the most people would like to see. “Reminding people about war is sad, the advertisers won’t like that. Hey, I know, let’s see if we can get Britney Spears to overdose!” As long as the system stays how it is, there will never be “real” news again. Every news network’s goal is no longer to present the truth to the nation, it’s now to sell ad time to advertisers to pay of the cost of running the news. How are you ever going to achieve fair news with a system like that?

If we as a country faced the reality of war every single day, in theory, wouldn’t we work harder for peace? As long as we have our heads in the sand of fluff news, we are letting everything go to utter hell around us.

I know that this post is, in effect, a downer but it upsets me that, even on memorial day, the news happily trots out photos of World War One and Two and other past wars like a child going La La La with his fingers in his ears like we have to just forget that we are in a way right now, a war with costs rising every day, a war with no end in sight and a war that most of the population has forgotten is even going on.

I guess what I am saying is that it would be nice if the news reported actual news again.

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