Right now in the American media machine, we are in the middle of one of the worst news cycles in years. Between the Michael Jackson trial and Schiavo versus Schindler family fued, some of the most important news of the twenty-first century has been pushed back to page two. As if the media circus karma here has come full circle, Johnnie Cochran past away this week. The originator of media saturation, Cochran was the lead attorney for the defense in the O.J. Simpson trial. That trial set the standard for what has now become the norm in reporting. Some people call it sensationalizing, others call it trash. I consider it the easy way out. It’s too difficult for lazy journalists to write about what should matter to the public. Some journalists use the cop-out excuse that they’re just reporting what people want to know about. The flaw in that thinking is this: Journalist set the agenda for the news. They decide what goes on page one. If newspapers decided to put the ACLU trial against Donald Rumsfeld before pre-season baseball articles, more people would consider it important. If more journalists took the high road, so to speak, more Americans would know what they’re country has done and is doing in Iraq and Afganistan. We might start to understand why some of the things we read about are happening. But, that is the hard way. The easy way is to scramble outside of a courtroom in Southern California waiting for soundbytes, or publicizing a family fued over a sick woman.

According to the ALL HIP HOP website, Mickey D’s has offered to pay rappers who mention Big Macs in a hit song. I mean I’m all for rappers fattening their pockets but commercials inbedded in the lyrics!? Rappers have been shouting out product in songs for quite some time – “My Adidas,” “Air Force Ones,” “Pass the Courvoisier” – but this is different. Corporations are now approaching rappers and offering cash for these mentions. Am I the only one a little weirded out by this.

Read it for yourself.

I’m just as sick of this as anyone else and my anger, resentment and frustration over this skyrocketed after hearing Saint DeLay’s comments last week: (via Dispatches from the Culture Wars).

“One thing that God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo, to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America,” Mr. DeLay told a conference organized by the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group. A recording of the event was provided by the advocacy organization Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“This is exactly the issue that is going on in America, of attacks against the conservative movement, against me and against many others,” Mr. DeLay said.

Ohhhh, I see! The left is using Terri to bring down the right?! But God has brought the right this woman, whose consciousness is questionable, but will martyr herself for them? Is that how God works??? And on Easter….how appropriate. Have our enlightened leaders even bothered to take a look at the polls that indicate most “conservative” voters don’t even support federal intervention in this matter? And, apparently, some guy has offered money to have Terri’s husband killed.

And then Bush, after signing Schiavo Law says it’s better to err on the side of life. So does that mean no more death-penalty? Stricter gun control? No drilling in ANWR? What the *hell* does that mean? More money for AIDS in Africa? How about more money for AIDS here? No more Iraq-style wars? Does anyone else feel sick?

And now the news outlets, in their orgasmic furor to keep up with this story, have taken to interviewing “experts” on Terri’s condition, like Dr. William Hammesfahr, a Florida neurologist who examined Terri in 2002, and who insists that Terri is not in a permanent vegetative state. Thanks Salon for this:

“Hammesfahr’s professional credibility has in fact come into question before. In 2001, the Florida Department of Health accused him of falsely advertising a neurological treatment and exploiting a patient for financial gain, according to a report from the Associated Press today. With regard to Hammesfahr’s views on the Schiavo case, Dr. Lawrence J. Schneiderman, a bioethicist at University of California, San Diego, told the AP, ‘He’s a quack, to put it the politest way I can.’”

I can’t even begin to imagine what Terri would say if she were able to understand what’s happened, though the Washington Post does a good job of guessing. This poor woman, whose parents want their daughter, whose husband feels it’s not fair to keep her alive, who mostly likely got into this mess because of an eating disorder, would probably laugh, if she could, at how absurd this is.

Terri Schiavo. Jessica Lunsford. Steriods. Martha Stewart’s homecoming. Fiddy and The Game beefing… These have been the top stories of the last few weeks. It makes you wonder if with the countless cable outlets and radio talk stations, the bazillion bloggers, and print mob, why isn’t there more diversity of news topics.

I mean, I feel bad for Terri Schiavo, but there’s a couple dozen Terri Schiavos in ever hospital in every town in every state every single day. A couple dozen at least. Yet, all involved single out this particular case to champion and cover. Why her? Is it because it’s Florida and somehow this might be JEB Bush’s pet project or a chink in his armor? Is it because of what Terri Schiavo used to look like before she got sick? (ie. “the girl next door”). What makes her life worth so much more than all the other women, men and children who suffer through similar cases year in and year out?

And in GWB and the Dems grandstanded all over this one, just answer me one question: What about next time? What are we gonna do for the next Terri Schaivo—you know the one… The one who wasn’t so cute, the one who was maybe a little fatter or older or more ethnic or poorer… What about that woman or man? Is everyone gonna hold a vigil for them? Will congress step in to save their life or plug their plug? Will the next case get round the clock coverage and spark public debate?

Next, I have a hard time believing that Jessica Lunsford was the only missing child in America. As with every white girl or woman or child that goes missing in America, Jessica got neat-round the clock media coverage and was hailed as the girl “next door” (code for “white”). It’s as if we’ve all accepted the fact that missing Black, Hispanic and Asian girls are somehow so much less valuable that we don’t cover their cases or mourn their found bodies or comfort their heartbroken parents.

You know, just once I’d like to see Rita Cosby or Nancy Grace or Aaron Brown or somebody at least pretend that it’s at least possible for the “girl next door” to be darker than a suntan. Just once. I’d like for the Amber Alert to be sounded for someone who doesn’t look like an “Amber” or a “Becky” or a “Billy”. Just once.

And then there’s the Steriods. On Capital Hill. Congressional Hearings for Steriods… Are you kidding me?! First off, I remember the Tobacco hearings back in the day when all those poison pushers got up infront of Congress and took the 5th and our congressfolks (who take campaign contributions from these companies) acted like they were being productive. Same deal with those trifling CEOs who took the 5th a few years back… Congress is just a joke. As for the field of dreams:

Baseball’s been corrupt ever since the Black Sox scandal of 1919, ever since they banned blacks from playing until 1947 thus giving every white ballplayer a 50 year head-start, ever since the league built smaller ballparks in the late 1980s to increase homeruns, ever since the league authorized juiced balls in the early 1990s…

Baseball’s been doped up in one form or another for a long, long time. This is not news.

Maybe Barry B.’s juiced. Maybe not. Maybe McGwire’s juiced. Maybe Ken Caminitti was right, like Lyle Alzado years before him. Maybe lots of guys in lots of sports are on roidin’ it up. )Even tennis great John McEnroe admitted to taking steroids while he played.) And if they are this is not news. What’s news is everyone who’s playing dumb and feigning outrage or acting like it’s all the players’ fault.

From managers, coaches, owners and trainers to sportswriters and media who looked the other way as the muscles grew inexplicably bigger and the records fell inexplicably fast to the fans who blindly cheered and consumed in the face of the obvious, none of these guys acted alone. Not one. They all had help.

The real news begins the moment they start rounding up the accomplices. Speaking of news…

Then there’s Martha Stewart. She get out of jail, complains about her low-jack anklet and suddenly she’s Sojourner Truth?! Lookit, she got off easy. She lied to the Feds. She took insider tips from Sam Waksal, her boyfriend and ImClone CEO, who’s still in prison for this by the way. In fact there were 4 people involved in this: Stewart got 5 months, all the guys are serving 3-7 years. Minimum. So to everyone who thinks she got off easy: SHUT. UP.

And then there’s the obligatory “black” story. You better believe that whenever the media decides to put black folks on TV, it’s never good. 50 Cent and The Game? That was nothing more than press releases, photo-ops and the same corporations who control the news making money for their entertainment and record divisions and other corporate alliances.

The only real news that’s been covered recently was the Brian Nichols and Tim Weise tragedies. But it’s interesting how the utter incompetence of law enforcement in Atlanta has been is downplayed in favor of elevating Ashley Smith to sainthood—a role she clearly wants no part of. (Full disclosure: “Purpose Driven Life” is my favorite book ever. Honest.) As for Jeff Weise of Red Lake, Minnesota… A Native America Nazi who praised Adolph Hitler. Lemme say that again: A Native America Nazi… That’s like a brotha joining the Klu Klux Klan. If you put Mel Brooks, Dave Chappelle and the South Park guys in a room with a pound of weed, they couldn’t have cooked that one up on their best day.

Anyway…

When is the press gonna change? How many stories are they gonna continue to ignore in the name of ratings, politics, follow-the-pack coverage and appeasing corporate interests? How much longer will we be stuck listening to pundits with no track record to speak of be hailed as pundits just because of their connections and their ability to tow the company/party line? And criminals aside, for God’s sake, how long is the cultural and racial bias that drives media outlets to label some stories worth more than others going to continue?

By the way: Aren’t we supposed to be at war someplace? Where’s Bin Laden? Are we even looking for WMD anymore? What’s the body count for AIDS these days and didn’t a new, deadlier strain pop up about 4 weeks ago? Didn’t Congress okay a whole bunch of money for more wars? And didn’t Congress just pass a law making it harder than ever for average folks to declare bankruptcy? Isn’t gas like 50 Bucks a barrel and climbing? Aren’t we somewhere enforcing our views on some country smaller than us?

Isn’t there some actual news being overlooked as we speak?

Hadji Williams. Ex-Marketing Hustler. Current Troublemaker and author of KNOCK THE HUSTLE: How to save Your Job and Your Life from Corporate America. (May 2005) www.knockthehustle.com // www.barnesandnoble.com

In New Orleans on Saturday, a Mardi Gras Indian annual festival turned ugly when police decided to break up the procession violently and with limited cause. Police were notified that one Native American male may have had a concelead shotgun, but then went forward and disbanded the entire parade with force the Native Americans considered unnecessary. New Orleans, a city that holds parades and carnivals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, doesn’t seem like the city that would summarily break up a parade because of a possibility of violence. Hello, the land of mardi gras is potentially violent, but other festivals like it are monitored by the police, not broken up by them. Those parades are frequented by drunken college coeds baring skin and fighting, and yet no one has moved to stop any of it. On a Tuesday night in New Orleans, in the middle of spring break, I saw fighting, harrasment and public intoxication on a new level, and stiill the party continued. Could it have been the participants of the Mardi Gras Indian parade, who are mostly Native American. The police do not usually have to answer to this community, in New Orleans or anywhere else, unless it is a higly organized tribe that has fought for its rights with the local and state governments.In California there are a few such tribes, and even they are subject to being called a special interest group, the use of their own land subject to threats of regulation from Sacramento.The lack of respect for Native American issues, rights and traditions has been a mainstay of the American tradition since this country’s founding, but in the 21st century it still amazes me that this disrespect is so blatant. Many tribes have gained the right to self-rule, with stringent regualtion by the government of course, and yet the ability to coexist respectfully and peacefully with that government has still alluded many. It is time for Americans and local governments to asses why Native Americans in this county are not treated fairly. Taking into account their history in America, I would think there would be a better place for them in our society, not as just the forgotten or auxilliary peoples we tend to teach about in schools. With the violence in New Orleans sure to draw criticism and even more attention, there is another opportunity, at least for the local government there, to take a look at what steps should be taken to ensure Native Americans are treated like Americans.