Mike Masterson, a columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, usually writes sensational pieces about the multiple exhumations and autopsies of Janie Ward, a 16-year old girl who died 18 years ago at a Searcy County beer bust. Sometimes he writes about himself, about how much he enjoys being spanked and how much his readers enjoy his columns about being spanked.
Today, however, Masterson chides the corporate media for writing about frivolous and inane events, listing what he thinks "are the most irrelevant non-stories mistaken for nationally significant 'news' by broadcast, cable stations and some newspapers in 2007....It’s important to recognize," he tells us, "that they also were presented as somehow nationally relevant 'news' events during a period in our nation when the national debt easily exceeds a trillion dollars, the value of the dollar is rapidly sinking, oil prices are setting historic highs, we’re at war in two countries, efforts continue to undermine our Constitution, Islamic radicals openly seek to destroy Western civilization, our housing market is collapsing, public schools are declining, our Congress and president have beyond dismal public approval ratings, mass murders increase and a no-holds-barred presidential election is under way....
"The point is that not only has the media eagerly all but surrendered its vital role as a watchdog in the public interest," Masterson contends, "it has become a corporatized promoter of irrelevant gossip and lucrative titillation. The consequence is a public largely uninformed on issues of genuine significance to our very survival as a nation." Like ghoulish autopsies and pleasurable butt-spankings.
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