By AJ Dome
I am a traitor. I should be burned at the stake.
At least that’s what the little red diablo on my shoulder was telling me. He’s quite the charmer; he made a few appearances recently, resulting in a mental battle over what I thought was a simple case of idiocy. It turned out to be a violent immune system reaction.
The violence that took place in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 8, made me sick. No amount of Pepto-Bismol could help me feel better. I saw criticism. I saw the blame game take full effect.
This is usually the case in instances where a tragedy occurs, and it’s no help that our current media solution is to poke and prod every little detail for no reason (and no, I don’t think higher ratings are a good enough reason).
Hours before writing this article, I sat and discussed my displeasure of the situation with one of my friends, Jared Machini, a freshman majoring in sociology and criminology. He mentioned a Diane Sawyer interview with the doctor treating Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head and came close to death.
In the interview, Sawyer apparently tried to flex her intellectual muscles, but collapsed in a heap of stupidity during the attempt. During the morning show interview, it was stated, “while the doctors were working hard to keep Giffords alive, she held up the peace sign.”
The doctor replied calmly, stating “she was asked if she could hold up two fingers to test her cognitive skills.”
I’m glad the doctor was able to control his laughter because I would have laughed in Sawyer’s face. Not every little detail has to be taken to the absolute pinnacle of inner meaning. Some things are simple and literal. I laughed just hearing that story. I couldn’t help it.
I continued to laugh at my favorite source of unending silliness (i.e., the mainstream media) during the memorial service for those killed in Tucson.
Fox News (surprise, surprise) actually had the nerve to criticize the service, for various things including the traditional American Indian blessing at the beginning, calling it “weird,” “odd” and “unbefitting.”
If the word-munchers at Fox would open their closed mind, they would find that the blessing was very fitting for the service, and quite neat.
It bothers me that this horrible event caused such a hateful and ignorant reaction. National tragedies should not be vehicles for political agendas. Why can’t some factions of journalists get that through their thick skulls?
My cohort, Machini summed it up eloquently.
“In its pathetically desperate attempts to achieve greater numbers, the mainstream media continues to show its stupidity by turning simple, clear-cut concepts into brilliant intellectual feats of genius,” Machini said. “Thus, it makes things more complicated than they should be.”
If this article makes me a traitor, then so be it. At least I won’t feel ill anymore.
