The Soapbox: Rants and Commentary: It Ain't News If It Doesn't Make Ratings Composed by Dan O'Leary (dano@cybercomm.net) Summer 1997 I noticed something disturbing during a typical night of American evening news. Gianni Versace’s funeral was covered with two stories, one including how a canopy had to be placed outside the service and the sidewalk closed due to the flood of movie stars and celebrities that attended. These stories were followed up by news about the release of photos of Princess Diana’s final resting place. The next story was a 15-second (yes, I timed it) mention of memorial services for Mother Teresa in Calcutta and at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. The following item told of musicians like Sting and Phil Collins who plan to record an album in Princess Diana’s memory, proceeded by a story about rumors of infighting between Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth regarding Diana’s funeral arrangements. Does anyone else see a problem here? If the news priorities are any mirror of our own, we all need to do a little reevaluation. We have three world-renown people who have died in the last week: Gianni Versace, the murdered international fashion designer; Princess Diana, divorcee of royalty known for her traveling charity work; and Mother Teresa, an inspirational (regardless of religious beliefs) spiritual leader who dedicated her life to personally helping those in need around the world, especially in places like poverty-stricken Calcutta. Why is it the latter is only mentioned in a passing blurb in-between stories of Hollywood wealth and British gossip? Does it alarm anyone else that we spend so much time on glamour and glitz in this country that we leave little time for anything else? This is not to belittle the deaths of anyone; Gianni Versace and Diana Spencer both died by unnatural causes, and any productive human being who suffers the same fate regardless of social stature is a loss to us all. This is also not an attack on Diana’s charity work (which I’m sure was commendable, was simply based on her link to royalty). This is a cry for reason, folks. Of course, this sort of thing happens all the time: rather than report on the Congressional hearings regarding "soft" money campaign donations and how finances are handled – possibly some of the most important debates of the last five years – we were treated to more Jon Benet Ramsey hearsay (let me know when the case is solved, thank you), Paula Jones’ latest legal problems, and Steven Spielberg making the Forbes top-grossing entertainer list. Maybe we’ve just gotten too shallow. Perhaps society is following Machiavellian prophesy and just accelerating further along the downward spiral, and it’s just a matter of time before we crash. Perhaps the great big world out there doesn’t quite meet our Hollywood-weaned image of what it should be, and it’s just much easier for us to play ostrich and ignore it all. Without going too far off the deep end here, maybe fashion, wealth, and flash aren’t the deciding factors here. Are there really forces out there that think like Nicholson’s character in "A Few Good Men" and think "You can’t HANDLE the truth!"? Is there really some sort of Cancer Man out there taking the hatchet to information and doling out what he believes is the most basic knowledge a simple-minded public can consume? Here’s one last example for your consideration. An environmental protest is underway to stop a NASA launch in September. The transported instruments which will be used to study Venus from orbit will be powered by Plutonium 237 (much more deadly than P-238, a single pound evenly spread across the Earth’s surface will make every human fatally sick). Seven pounds of this material will be enclosed in shielding so thin that a former NASA employee said it was "a joke." The rocket series carrying this fragile package has had occasional failures in its history, and a NASA official wrote off the chances of accident as "1500 to 1." (Y‘know, when potential global disaster is a possibility, I prefer to hear the word "millions" in there somewhere.) NASA’s environmental impact study includes its "solution" for cleanup as permanently evacuating all life from the affected area. Has anyone heard of this hazard in ANY news broadcasts? I sincerely doubt it, that was probably nudged out of the schedule by the announcement of nominees for the MTV Music Awards. If anyone can give me evidence to prove me wrong, I’ll gladly put on my "War is Peace" sandwich board and get in line with the herd. Back To Rants and Commentary

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