No News is Entertainment

What makes news news?

This past week everyone was tsk-tsking about the tanning mom.  The story quickly shifted from whether or not she took her kid to the salon to her own fixation with bronzing. 

Was this news because Lindsay Lohan's finally getting her act together and that leaves a huge gap to fill on the morning shows.  Or was nothing else happening in the world except a sluggish economy or May Day protests or -- what's that called, again?  Oh yeah -- a presidential election. 

Granted we've been yakking about the candidates for months and both reporter and audience are getting a tad weary.  Perhaps we need to swallow our electoral pride and admit that the French have the right idea in limiting campaigning to around six weeks.  Everyone starts on the same day and gets the same amount of air time.  If the run-up to the election were shorter we just might pay more attention.

Instead it goes on endlessly and we need to entertain ourselves with non-news like celebrity break-ups and the octo-moms financial troubles. 

If you watch a program labeled "news" that's what you expect to find.  Otherwise call it entertainment.