The fairgrounds of the fourth estate

The day before yesterday, more than 200 people in Iraq were slaughtered brutally, suddenly reminding people that a protracted and intractable battle is still ensuing in the Middle East. The electronic media, however, was reporting on more breaking and important news. For instance, CNN was busy condemning the evil ways of the youth while Fox News, surprisingly, was busy promoting Republican candidates. And just one day later, when local officials were putting the figure above 500, the story almost disappeared from everyone's radar. CNN's venerable and old-as-dirt Larry King Live was showcasing Graceland on the occasion of Elvis's death anniversary and Fox News was more interested in shock jock Don Imus and his comeback. Understandably so, the American media was more interested in important “national” stories, ones that could resonate with its audience and maybe bring a bit of advertising revenue along the way. The only place one could probably expect to see heavy coverage of the tragedy would be in Iraq. It would be hard to imagine the plight of the Iraqi viewers, fatigued by non-stop, back-to-back coverage, with innumerable expert analyses, the ticker rolling by 24/7 with more tit-bits of information and reams of columns in the papers, all dedicated to the tragedy.
To be fair however, the media, everywhere, has always been the beacon of fairness and rationality, treating each story with the importance it deserves. Commercial considerations have hardly influenced this venerable profession. For instance, when the Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash in the August of '97, the BBC went from being a news corporation to running a 24/7 eulogistic obituary of Lady Di. When within the same fateful week, Mother Teresa passed on; the BBC gave the story its due consideration and then continued with their homage to the beautiful and enigmatic princess. What could prove BBC's balanced, proportionate and straight-shooting editorial direction more than this? Diana was British (or Welsh more appropriately?), a princess (quite a beautiful one at that) who lived a troubled life and died a mysterious death. But was that the reason she was highlighted? Of course not! That would be plain wrong. It was solely based on all the humanitarian deeds that she carried out throughout her life. Like when she spoke out against the use of all those terrible land mines. In comparison, Mother Teresa was just a frail, old lady clad in white. Her only claim to fame - being called "The saint of the gutters".
The news channels have always attached a certain level of importance and relevance to their top stories. They have prided themselves on never obsessing over inconsequential narcissists (or as they call them "celebrities"), like tabloids, and have always followed stories of national stature. For example, who can ever forget the mind numbing coverage of Mrs. Anna Nicole Smiths' untimely demise? I don’t quite remember, but the buxom damsel's over dosed death and the subsequent custody battle over her infant by an ever increasing population of alleged fathers was somehow supposed to be a national matter. I think it had to do with the effectiveness of the present paternity claim laws ... or some such thing.
Another instance of the media's celebrity detachment came when the apple of everyone’s' (except for the media’s of course) eye - Paris Hilton, got pulled over - sent to jail - sent home - sent back to jail - and finally released. The second-to-second-excruciating-minutiae of "breaking news" relating to Paris's case was paramount for the press to expose the most heinous crime of the land - "preferential treatment". How else could the media open people's eyes and keep the authorities honest? Sometimes though, some did go a bit overboard, like the now famous anchorwoman who refused to read any more on the Paris case. But Anderson Cooper of CNN was conscientious enough to make a brief editorial note on the over-exposed nature of the case in the first few minutes of his show and then moved on to the breaking story of the day, for the rest of the hour, that of Ms.Hilton.
As for the weary Iraqi viewers, they will probably have to put up with the same everyday inane news of bombings, executions and kidnappings for quite some time to come. At least until they evolve into a "mature" democracy and get their very own celebrity!