No news isn't necessarily good news.
When the Editorial Board sits down each day to go over fodder for the next day's editorial, we usually have a few strange, funny or otherwise relevant news stories to choose from.
We try not to focus on trivial news or ignore big issues, especially when they impact UF students in some way.
But today, when we were scouring national headlines trying to find something to opine on, it became apparent that either nothing interesting happened today, or the United States has become completely ignorant of what's actually going on in the world.
CNN.com, an otherwise reputable news source, has the option of ranking stories by popularity.
The most popular headline? "Sexy tot mom pics!"
Following that are stories about Michael Jackson, the television show "Wife Swap," an asteroid perched precariously close to the Earth and a few missing person and plane crash stories that the cable news is currently obsessing over.
To be fair, a story about President Barack Obama overturning a Bush law that weakened the Endangered Species Act is also high up on the list, but that's the only story pertaining to national or world issues out of the ten.
This ignorance is nothing new - scholars have published several journal articles on the concept of "American privilege" - the idea that Americans feel that they can disregard the rest of the world just because they sit in a position of power and relative wealth. American high school students don't know a world map from a hole in the ground, and UF students probably know more about drink specials in midtown on Wasted Wednesday than about U.S. foreign or economic policy, let alone international relations.
News is digested in bullet points and sound bites, which gels with the fast pace of our society. Americans want their news now, and they want it on computers, BlackBerrys and Kindles alongside broadsheet newsprint.
Opposing technology is nothing less than curmudgeonly, and the Editorial Board embraces the positive effect the Internet has had on journalism and storytelling.
But in breaking up the news by story, people can read exactly what they want to read and disregard the rest.
Unfortunately, most of the time people would rather read stories about kittens being stuffed in smoky bongs (also on CNN.com's top 10 list) than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent envoy in Israel.
And the current crisis in the journalism industry doesn't bode well for in-depth investigative stories or international perspectives.
As more and more great papers like the Rocky Mountain News close their doors, fallen victim to the faltering economy and years of negative revenue, people will become less and less informed.
They will get their news from several national online sources like CNN.com, and small yet significant issues will go unnoticed.
Newspapers exist to serve the community. They are charged with exposing corruption and keeping local government officials honest. Local newspapers are already struggling to keep reporters on staff to cover crucial local issues like City Commission meetings, and predictions for the future are less than bright.
As more news moves online, many will give up their morning newspaper-and-breakfast rituals. Maybe they'll skip breakfast altogether and just head in to work, where they can browse PerezHilton.com from the safety of their cubicles. But one thing is certain: As more newspapers go under, Americans will become less informed, and a great service to society will be lost.
