Eons ago, when I was a newspaper copy boy, they called it “human interest,” filling out the day’s happenings with little tales of quirky people and odd events.
They are still doing that on cable news, but quirky and odd have morphed into bizarre and repulsive.
Larry King, celebrating fifty years in broadcasting, is now more preoccupied with the family, friends and hangers-on of Anna Nicole Smith, the putative fathers of her baby and the “American Idol” crowd than he used to be with Bob Woodward’s revelations about Bush and Iraq.
Keith Olbermann (with his “Worst Persons)” Joe Scarborough and the rest tell us all about Britney Spears, Paris Hilton etc., then take us down to the next species sublevel by solemnly interviewing the slimy Boswells of "celebrity journalism.”
Every medium (even a blog) needs ratings, viewers, listeners and readers, but how low are we going to go and how much of our time are we going to spend there?
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