"IMUS - ITIS", " PARIS-ITIS " ARE THEY REALLY NEWS? Paris Hilton, Don Imus, the late Anna Nicole Smith : Do they constitute legitimate "news"? What brings these "superficial celebrities" as the "lead" for news coverage? With the coverage from the so-called newsrooms of CNN, Fox News , MSNBC and even the national networks, citizens must be wondering whether we are receiving information replacements for the Iraq War; the growing Federal (and Maryland!) deficits; and the huge shifts in a the world economy towards globalization; and exodus of too many doctors from practice in today's "phony" lawsuit environment.

Thoughts about about Imus, Paris , Anna Nicole , and ....... some Maryland politicians ....

As thoughtless as his words were about the Rutgers women's basketball team were, is Don Imus the first public figure to do a "ready,fire,aim" verbal shot justifying news domination for more than a week? Does Paris Hilton's calling for "Mom" enroute back to prison deserve equal headline attention with the G-8 Summit disagreements among the major world powers? Through the march of quixotic history, politicians and self-promoters have long been practicing the art of verbal verbosity, speaking stupid and nasty noise!

"In your living room" reporting of Paris Hilton and Don Imus, echoes Richard Nixon's "I am not a crook" , spoken as his Vice President, and former Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew involuntarily left office as he decried the press coverage as given to the American people by "nattering nabobs of negativism".

Here, in Maryland - for the past 5 years - greeting each Maryland General Assembly session, are words that might be classified as the art of "overstatement", when politicians struggle to achieve celebrity attention to issues that deserve more: Serious issues are blitzed by these kinds of statements.

"Slots will balance Maryland's budget"; "A special session will correct everything wrong with excessive spending" ; "More police will solve Baltimore's crime rate" ...... on and on.

Nationally, it's not much different from Maryland. In the current endless Presidential campaign, a typical headline grabber:

"The problems of trade deficit , budget deficit , Iraq War , increased crime , government inefficiency/bloated bureaucracy will no longer exist" when candidate X is elected." !!

Any thinking citizen knows that assertion is not to be true --- but , these kinds of claims are easing into the same kind of news headline that befits the Don Imus -- Paris Hilton syndrome.

Let's try for more analysis and thought instead of increased "hyperventilation" on daily news coverage. Is it not time for going to a perspective that goes more in-depth than just bloating statements of Democrat marginal candidate Kusinich with those of Obama/Clinton, or Republican Huckabey with McCain/Guiliani ?

The tradition of the public editor / content analyis needs to return to news coverage. It is time to reduce the news hype that benefits advertisers and media salaries instead of giving citizenship responsibility meaning when the media reader or viewer is trying to sort out the wheat from the chaff, serious content from "B.S."

Where is the spirit of Walter Lippman and H.L. Mencken? Where are more of Tom Friedman and Maureen Dowd when we need them? Folks, it is not Imus and Paris that need to blanket the complex and serious news of the 21st century!

Labels: Imus, Maryland, news, Paris Hilton

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