The Meddling Media

I love gossip as much as the next girl… when someone leaves a copy of US weekly or People in the loo at work, I will admit to occasionally taking a bit longer than needed to do my business so I can get a glimpse of Mariah Carey’s ridiculous nursery or Oprah’s changing looks through the years. But I have to draw the line between those who choose to be public figures and those who do absolutely nothing purposefully in the interest of becoming the subject of a media frenzy.

I’m talking, of course, about Ahhhhnold’s love child.  Isn’t this really about the Governator’s bad behavior and NOT about a 14 year old kid? So why did we need to track down the woman involved? Why isn’t it enough to know that he did this thing to his OWN already public family? I feel terrible for his children (all of them, wherever they may be) and his wife — but that’s nothing compared to how I feel about the 14 year old boy who never asked to be made a public figure in this way. He can’t help who his parents are and he certainly isn’t at fault for the way he was conceived. He is undoubtedly already struggling with the difficulties of being 14 — he hardly needs the added scrutiny, pressure and gossip. I’m sure he gets plenty of that at school.

The media often also offers tainted views of our military men and women’s actions overseas. My husband was on the ground in Iraq with a battalion that had an implanted journalist who did a hatchet job on several of the young Marines he pretended to be friends with as soon as he had a controversial idea that would make for a sensational story. I am all for the public seeing the war up close and personal, but I’m not sure there is ever a way to convey to an extremely judgmental public the realities that our warfighters face on a daily basis. That topic is an entire can of worms that I’m not going to open all the way (just popped the lid to let a worm or two squiggle out I guess). But is asking the media to cover ACTUAL NEWS just outside the realm of possibility? Puh-lease?