Once again, O.J. Simpson is dominating the U.S. mainstream media, this time for allegedly breaking into a Las Vegas hotel room with some friends armed with handgun(s).
Why? Well, allegedly, to recover some O.J. memorabilia that he believed were rightfully his.
Um, like he believed Nicole was rightfully his, even after the divorce?
Oh, never mind.
I don't care.
At least, I mean, I shouldn't care.
I shouldn't give a damn about O.J., just like I shouldn't give a damn about Britney Spears or Paris Hilton.
Neither should you.
But even when we make an honest effort to avoid the junk TV, even when we force ourselves to watch only the cable news channels, hoping to witness some relevant developments of the day, hoping to actually learn something, what do we see?
We see O.J.'s mug shot. I guess it's supposed to get us excited. Draw us in. Mmmmmm, scandal. Juicy, embarrassing, life-altering scandal. Someone getting caught, like you're sure you never will be.
We see Marcia Clark, one of the prosecutors in the original O.J. trial for Nicole's murder, suggesting that we should have listened to her back in the '90s.
We see Larry King discussing O.J.'s latest adventures with Kato Kaelin, as if Kato can offer any insight into O.J.'s psyche in this particular century.
Mary Shaw is a Philadelphia-based writer and activist, with a focus on politics, human rights, and social justice. She is a former Philadelphia Area Coordinator for the Nobel-Prize-winning human rights group Amnesty International, and her views appear regularly in a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites. Note that the ideas expressed here are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Amnesty International or any other organization with which she may be associated.
...I would imagine that somebody in the "inner circle" that is controlling this little morality play would have set up O.J. just to make sure he could be in the headlines for the next 3-6 months. In the same way that there was a Jon Bonet Ramsey arrest just as a federal judge was declaring the Rethuglican Administration's wiretapping to be illegal.
There are only 24 hours in a news day. If 12 of them are dedicated to O.J. and 6 of them to Paris/Lindsay/Brittney, that leaves only 6 for "real news." If you waste another 3 on non-news issues and 2 on parroting the White House propoganda and then 1 hour on letting the rich know if they are getting richer or poorer today (stock reports) that leaves about 10 minutes to discuss actual subjects that matter.
WE MUST BE OUR OWN MEDIA -- NOBODY ELSE IS GOING TO DO IT FOR US.
by
Charlie L (2 articles, 3 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 674 comments)
on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 10:16:50 AM
All O.J., all the time. You're absolutely right, what AREN'T they covering? Like the attempted coup in Venezuela while we were all watching the "Shock and Awe" campaign.
by
dalton (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 17 comments)
on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 11:55:48 AM
I hadn't thought of it that way. Golly, since I matter too, maybe there was a news story about finishing my art class assignment ahead of schedule! Could you send me the video, since I don't care enough about OJ, Brittany, or Paris to watch the news? You know, maybe I should start watching it instead of doing homework since it wouldn't be fair to ignore them when they matter.
One question--why do OJ, Brittany, Paris, and I matter more than the dead people in Iraq who don't get on the news?
by
Kathryn Hedges (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments)
on Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 5:00:36 AM
You are right. How can OJ Simpson possibly matter? How can it be a news story, not to mention that it gets reported on nearly every day.
I agree also with Charlie L. They plant this crap in the news whenever they want something else to remain out of the spotlight. Here's what I wrote about it on Simple Utah Mormon Politics.
by
Frank Staheli (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 30 comments)
on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 11:42:30 AM
The last I heard, neither Britney nor Paris is a murderer who got away with it and has thumbed her nose at the families of her victims by refusing to pay her liability awarded by a civil jury.
Did I miss something? I sure haven't missed seeing him thumb his nose at the law again.
Some of us think that's worth paying some attention to.
by
jf (0 articles, 3 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 13 comments)
on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 11:47:11 AM
... since many people believe he is guilty of a previous crime, that anything he's accused of doing from now on is of major press coverage? I guess people feel he should go to jail for SOMEthing since he was acquitted of murder years ago. Not that the two have anything to do with each other...
Then again, if they can bring up Mumia Abu-Jamal's Black Panther membership as reason to give him the death penalty decades later for a totally unrelated crime, I suppose we should expect anything.
Although it begs the question: A brilliant man is still in prison for a murder someone else has already confessed to, and no media pays attention. Another man, a total jerk with no morals at all, in my opinion, is NOT convicted for a crime people think he DID commit, but not only is THAT trial top news for EVER, but every move he makes or stupid thing he utters is news.
Why do Americans care about one and not the other? Because that's what corporate media tell them to.
by
Mars Caulton (1 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 82 comments)
on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 10:48:26 PM
Everyone matters... If we did not have issues with OJ splattered all over the front pages of.... EVERYWHERE, then people might just HAVE to take an interest in the political discourse happening in this nation of ours....
According to Harris, right around 30% of the people in this nation actually have some sort of a clue about how the country runs.. However, everyone else has positively 0 desire to know what is going on, and of the 30%, maybe 10% who are not actually beltway leeches have a solid understanding of what is happening...
Now, if we were to eliminate stories like this OJ piece, then the 90% of the 30% might have to suffer and learn more about the political system! and the 66% might actually start developing some interest in learning something about what goes on in DC...
So yes, OJ matters :-D
Ciao, CZ
by
steve scheetz (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 587 comments)
on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 12:10:37 PM
Of course OJ, Britney, and other such low life celebrities matter. They form the core of America's deepest, most cherished cultural value. They are the foundation of the giant media industry without whom revenue and profits would dive to a depression. They are America's greatest, more profitable exports. They are the heros children worship. Hell, even adults worship them. Finally, they replace the Catholic Church!
by
TomK (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 217 comments)
on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 12:47:00 PM
The American has this pasion for celeribltis. They always have had. It also makes good money for the mainstrain media. We need to push the how Bushco and the war is to the mainstream media.
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Gareece (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 46 comments)
on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 3:46:37 PM
Bush wanted to create a diversion to take the focus off of (Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, the fired Attorneys, – pick one or insert your own) so my conspiracy theory is that Bush hired the goons and paid off OJ off to create a diversion that would give the masses something to watch. Here's the important part – and OJ took it because he was told that bush would commute his sentence at the end of his term. Result is OJ has money and a commuted sentence and the neocons have another smoke screen.
by
chris ferry (0 articles, 5 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 12 comments)
on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 6:26:54 PM
...and O.J. is just stupid enough to realize that these folks don't care much for "coloreds" and he won't get the promised commutation or pardon, just a quiet trip on a private plane to a dark place.
But hey, nobody deserves it more.
by
Charlie L (2 articles, 3 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 674 comments)
on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 7:14:05 PM
Most of the commenters are correct especially the Prof. Everyone is important anything less is discriminatory and unacceptable.What is different is what we should do about the issues mentioned.
OJ should be dealt with by the justice system. Despite our prejudices he is, under our system presumed, innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Everything else including his alleged miscarriage of justice is simply Monday morning or coffee room lawyering.
Brittany’s woes require professional help and Paris, well….Either way we can’t reasonably affect the outcome.
The news papers are full of#@!* sport and seemingly pointless &*#$@ celeb dross, it does provide simplistic vicarious amusement for a good many people as is their right. There in lies the problem do we now remove the above pap in favour of more meaningful issues? In my lexicon (good word s prof) that smacks of elitist behaviour or worse Censorship and that is a ‘slippery slope’.
It is a fact of nature that not everyone is able to think meaningfully about the “important issues” because of their varying emotional or intellectual capacities.
Democracy is built on these differences it is the very balance that is supposed to eliminate the extremes of either direction.
I agree that it is frustrating that people in general don’t seem to appreciate or even appear interested in issues whose importance is patently obvious to OpEdNewsers (great term huh?). But, it’s all a matter of Democracy and Human Rights. What we need is people friendly solutions.
by
Andris (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 531 comments)
on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 8:53:25 PM
Keep people distracted and they won't riot in the streets and take down the regime. The Romans had this one figured out a couple of thousand years ago. Wouldn't surprise me a bit if Bush's people set this up, but LIHOP could apply to this too. Just let OJ be OJ and make sure the media catch wind of it. They'll run after the gravy train for sure.
by
Kathryn Hedges (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments)
on Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 5:05:20 AM
and not only in the existential sense. Too sad, however, that the mass media complex would obsess over the alleged felonious capers of an ex football star to distract from the news that stands to affects the landscape of our nation (ie currently withouth the vast wasteland created by a nuke). Bad journalists, no cookie.
by
Karma Rox (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 14 comments)
on Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 12:47:31 PM
Who is OJ anyway? He jumped the shark the day he got away with murder. I couldn't care less.
Bear and I were watching the news, and when I saw OJ being walked out oh so dramatically in cuffs, I knew that his recidivism was going to eclipse every other "who cares" celebrity foible for at least the next couple of years.
A chorus of violins fire up in Aeolian frenzy! Bear, shaking, distraught, barely choking back the tears answers, "alas, this is so!"
I so don't care, I am going to forgo my standard verbosity.
Blessed be! Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 6:25:08 PM
18 comments
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