The Next Big Story

Saturday, 11:56 am

By Kate

In case you haven’t checked in with your favorite cable news programs, the Pope is still locked in mortal combat with the grim reaper. There is no other news.

This has been a blockbuster month for media ghoulishness. First we had two weeks of unrelenting media hysteria about Terri Schiavo. But now that they’ve taken up the Pope Deathwatch, she has been relegated to the dustbin of old news. Such is the fickleness of the media.

During the height of the endless Schiavo news cycle, they reveled in whipping people into hysteria, appealing to all of humanity’s worst instincts. They pitted people against each other and drove the story with ever more outrageous claims. When she died, they turned off the lights, packed up their cameras and their interest. Switched it all off like a light bulb and walked away to the Next Big Story. No regrets, no accountability, no responsibility.

Certainly the carnage they left in their wake—the shattered lives voyeuristically exploited—are not their concern. Never were. One could cynically think their top, middle and bottom lines were ratings and money.

Fortunately, they are not in the position to do anything other than afford the Pope the dignity of dying in peace and privacy. He is out of their grasp. As all dying people should be.