Aussi

Aussi

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The Trial

Why are we so interested in this chic who killed her daughter or whatever?  Yes I'm deliberately being flippant.  Yes, I understand that it is a heinous crime, but does it say more about us or her that we are obsessed with the DETAILS?

They say this is the O.J. Simpson trial of our generation.  I don't know if you know this, but at the time that the O.J. Simpson trial was going on like a million (they say 800,000 but it's really about a million) or so people died in Rawanda over the course of like a 100 days or something, and it was never really shown on the news because the stations were so OBSESSED with O.J.  The President, Clinton at the time, said he didn't even know it was going on...Does anyone even care about what O.J. is up to now?

Who knows what's really going on in the world right now as we are obsessed with this young woman who may or may not have killed her child. It's like we pick one death and obsess over it instead of thinking of the random deaths of so many in wars and like genocides.

The U.N. and the United States could have helped to stop the genocide in Rawanda if the country at large was paying attention to it.  If the media had focused attention on it and public opinion forced our leaders to care.  Instead, we just look at the skulls and skeletons of these dead people and think: Wow what a trajedy I wish I had known and by the way, was O.J. really wearing that glove or not?

Is it my fault that I didn't know about Rawanda until after the fact?  Yeah, I would say it is.  I don't make any kind of real effort to find out what's happening in the world at large and I enjoy a good Weiner joke now and then.  However, should Anthony Weiner and this chic, I refuse to remember her name (I can't forget Weiners name), who allegedly killed her daughter, make the headlines?  You know that Lifetime has already made a movie about them.  In fact I think these two should meet...

But in all seriousness, these people are celebrities for doing really bad things.  They are what we call infamous, right?  There is only a fine line between being famous and being infamous.  Pretty soon the lines get blurred and we are empathizing with the likes of the Anthony Weiners and the other murdering mothers.

So what are we supposed to do, how do we pick and choose our battles, our trials?  How do we force the media to focus on what's really important?

I don't know, change the channel when you see another 20/20 episode about this mother-daughter murder.  Try and watch the BBC, they focus on world news, real news.  I know we don't always care about what's happening in other countries, then maybe it's time we look at the reality of what's happening in our own neighborhoods.  There are a couple of homeless people that I see walking the streets of my neighborhood, and I'm sure there are more that I don't see.  Maybe I should find out about them, care about them, more than I care about some random woman I will never meet.

I know, coulda, shoulda, woulda, you are trying to hold on to your job and run your errands and at the end of the day you turn on CNN and there it is...the woman who murdered her daughter, and who really has the energy to change the channel when you've got diapers to change and etc. etc.

I know, I'm the same way.

What can little old me do?  Well I guess blog about it or whatever.  Maybe just bring up the conversation that we need a new conversation.  The media just latches on to a topic and over stuffs us with useless information.

We control the media, though, you know.  We are their audience.  If we don't care, they won't care.

I don't know what in the world exactly I'm supposed to care about and know about, but I don't think it's too much to demand that the media direct me away from sensationalized cases and into the real world.

nina

1 comment:

  1. The simple answer to all of that is. If the glove doesn't fit then you must acquit. Period.

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