Don't get me wrong, I feel for Michael Jackson's family and friends, and I wouldn't deny his impact on popular music. But it's been over 24 hours of non-stop Jacko news (literally) on some news stations. On my local station, they even featured an interview--I'm not making this up--with someone who once went to one of his concerts.
It really disturbs me that most of the people I've talked to have no idea what I'm talking about when I tell them about a young girl dubbed Neda who was shot down in the streets of Iran while demonstrating for the right of suffrage. And yet, within minutes of Jackson's death Twitter and Facebook and television media were rife with information about it, and have been at it non-stop for over a day.
In a better world, we would all be overwhelmed by news coverage of Neda's murder. Scratch that. In a better world, Neda would still be alive.
To be fair, Twitter did have a lot of information about Neda, although I would guess that a lot of that is because reporters were kicked out of Iran, and there weren't many other options. My point is that I feel like as a society, our priorities are fucked.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I kind of feel things are off balance. But that's what sells news, most Americans will never hear of Neda - but in a way she will never impact their lives...MJ on the other hand is the soundtrack to their lives. Sentimentality rules over true courage in peoples' hearts now. Sad but true.
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