Sometime last week in between the earth-shattering news that Michael Jackson, the OxiClean pitchman and Farrah Fawcett had all actually died within the same cosmic time frame, two significant news items went largely unnoticed.
First, on June 30, American forces officially withdrew from major cities in Iraq, giving control of security to the Iraqi National Guard. Sure, 130,000 troops may still remain in the country, but for many Iraqis the day was one of celebration, a day of independence much like our own, marked with national flags and even parades.
Around the same time, President Barack Obama's administration deployed 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to stomp out Taliban resistance. In the period of a week, one war theater saw the cue for the end credits, and another theater found itself with a few thousand more moviegoers demanding more popcorn.
Few Americans seem to notice the movement of hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens deployed abroad in the Middle East, anymore. And who could blame us? Cable news networks haven't given much attention to Iraq or Afghanistan for a long time.
Instead, CNN, Fox News and the likes have all been playing to the ratings. The biggest shows on television right now: Death and Despair. This combination made the Iraq War the big ticket for cable news ratings, but now celebrity deaths and the despair of our of economy are bringing in the dough. Jackson's death has been given coverage even a pope can't bring. Bernie Madoff, who, like the King of Pop, needs no introduction, gave news networks hours of airtime to first anticipate what the disgraced financier would receive for punishment and then to speculate how he would handle his 150-year sentence.
For some, Madoff's final judgment represented an almost biblical reckoning. Madoff would be sacrificed for the sins of Wall Street, and money would again flow from the spigots of capitalism. Yet, when he was finally punished, nothing of great significance ensued to calm our financial worries. Madoff went to prison, his wife Ruth published a written statement and the world was still in a recession.
The talking heads on television, the stately smiles in newspapers and the booming voices on talk radio all clamored for information that could somehow fuel their nonstop appetites, but news of an Afghanistan surge and the beginning of a long awaited Iraqi withdrawal did nothing for them. Then, speculation about Jackson's drug abuse and on-call doctors erupted onto the scene, and the talking heads were once again saved.
It seems that we no longer live in a post-Sept. 11 world. News about a war abroad no longer takes precedence in headlines, and our enemies are no longer turban wearing fundamentalists, but greedy and unprincipled financiers. The Age of Osama has been replaced by the Age of Bernie, and few have noticed.
Perhaps it's because we're tired of war, or because our shrinking pocketbook really hits home. But for millions of Americans, the wars overseas are not mere side notes but a terrible reality. Yet, in between the circus that has been South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's "Appalachian Trail" hike, Madoff's sentencing, and Jackson's death, our national appetite for tabloid fodder has hit the fan.
Don't stop till you get enough.
Matthew Christ is a political science sophomore. His column appears weekly.
