Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Headlines

When I made Yahoo my home page (and then customized it to be "My Yahoo"), it never crossed my mind that the day would come where the competing headlines would be "More Than 100K Feared Dead in Haiti Quake" and "Simon Cowell Leaves Idol". I find it disturbing that we live in a world where those two facts can legitimately be placed side by side as if they are of equal importance. Now, I'll be honest - I am an Idol viewer. Even an Idol fan. But under no circumstances is millionaire Simon Cowell's job drama even remotely important enough to warrant space in any sort of news website unless it's listed under "Entertainment". And even then, several paragraphs below Conan please!

Perhaps it's my fault. I probably selected "entertainment" as one of my interests on Yahoo (along with ACTUAL news) and now "My Yahoo" thinks I am as concerned about Tiger Woods marriage as I am about the collapse of the Haitian presidential palace. That's the trouble with the computer. Lots of info - no common sense. It's safe to say that when there has been a catastrophic event in the last 24 hours, keep the entertainment "news" under wraps for the rest of the day. Save it for Entertainment Tonight or TMZ. Let some actual news come through. It may concern someone that Simon is leaving it to Randy after this season, but probably not someone who has relatives in Haiti.

That said, I thought I'd mention the new phone books actually DID come yesterday. And I yelled "The new phone books are here, the new phone books are here!" just like I always do and then promptly tossed them into the recycle bin. As sad as it may be, I haven't looked in a phone book in years. I do it all on the computer now. But luckily I still get the newspaper - two even! So I can report that while the front page was appropriately dominated by the terrible news from Haiti, Simon Cowell's employment plans did not make the page. However, this being L.A., Conan's job situation did. In a state where movie stars routinely become governors, I suppose it's the best we can hope for.

1 comment:

Courtney said...

Amen Casey! I consider twitter to be a from of breaking news on my blackberry and I have tons of news sources on there, and those were both of the headlines.