Seriously?

I'm just fed up today. Just fed up.

I know we've always been a little addicted to following people in the news. Public figures are held up to a higher standard, especially when luck and talent have landed them somewhere with a lot of visibility and fabulous salaries. We kind of wish we were the ones with all the luck, and think they ought to be darned grateful for their good fortune, and they should be a role model of humility and hard work for the kids.

Especially athletes, I suppose, although the *rule* is the same for artists and performers, and even those accidentally swept up in the public eye for things like winning the lottery or getting some big inheritance from a chance meeting with someone rich.

But more and more the sad fact is the media plays it both ways, and it doesn't matter which is going on - the upswing or the pathetic caving in from too much PublicLife.

It is not entertainment, the rags to riches to rags story. And then there's the double whammy of letting it play out on the social media sites where they are publicly ridiculed and the basis of fights.

These kind of journalists are a new breed, although they've probably been skulking around in the background when I was young. Turning away in disgust at dog fighting rings and human trafficking, and then living off the misery of others - what would you call it?

Back in THE DAY, when reporters had honor and integrity, yellow journalism meant a journalist or paper that presented little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead used eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Oh but look for the symptoms while reading your online daily news or watching your main station broadcaster. They're there: the exaggeration of minor news, scandal-mongering, wide eye sensationalism, scare and misleading headlines, lavish use of pictures, false info from so-called experts, and even siding with the 'underdog' against the system.

500 year flood in Colorado!
Time To Build That Ark!
No, it's a 1,000 Year Flood!
No, no, a Flood of Biblical Proportions!

Journalists that treat news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion aren't in the rags at the check out stands anymore, like they were when we were kids. I remember laughing like crazy over the big headlines ~

Two Headed Woman Marrying Twin Men!
Proof At Last of Martian Invasion!
Reverse Stripe Zebra Found in Africa!
Houdini's Love Child Found in Chains!

It was silly and fun. Everyone understood what it was.

But not now. Now it's in reputable national papers who put the junk food right alongside a legitimate story by a reputed journalist. Not on the funnies page, or in the entertainment section. Don't worry about being right as long as you're first.

It's such an important thing, what we are fed as a diet of news. It creates a foundation for national ethics. I really question how self-reliant, intelligent, thoughtful and informed citizenry can possibly be critical thinkers on a diet of pizza and beer. And our examples in the news of drug addicted, wife beaters and cheaters who make 10 million a year, and entertain us with sexually explicit performances on national tv during an awards show aired in prime time. 

Miley Cyrus On Verge of Mental Collapse!

Who gives a shit.