Spin Dry

Memo to news editors everywhere: Paris Hilton is not news. Her arrest, imprisonment and, now, imminent release is a non-story. The only reason it appears to be a story is because you, the corporate media gate-keepers, keep flogging it harder than a submissive customer in a Japanese S&M brothel.

It is not news. It's not important. Contrary to what you seem to think, the majority of your audience could not care one absolute tiny iota less about it.

Meanwhile, while you were busy devoting so much air time to nothing, other things have been happening in the world...

• In dual rulings, the Supreme Court has basically gutted the First Amendment. In one instance, they determined that a school can restrict a student's right to free speech when that student isn't even in the school. In the other, and potentially more disturbing and less explicable ruling, the Supreme Court determined that American Taxpayers "have no standing" to sue the government for using tax money to fund faith-based initiatives. Or, in other words, say good-bye to not only separation of Church and State, but the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. The conservative fuckwits on the Court have done more to damage the Constitution today than they have since they all voted to crown King W instead of actually counting the votes.


• Iranian troops have crossed into Iraq. Or, rather -- an unnamed government source has claimed as much in The Sun, a British tabloid. A British tabloid owned by Rupert "Fox News" Murdoch. Or, in other words, yet more tarted up non-existent evidence is being manufactured to support yet another invasion of a sovereign nation for no reason whatsoever except that BushCo. and pals want oil.


• Ron Paul, the Republican presidential candidate who is consistently voted number one in internet polls, is being shoved aside and silenced by the king-makers, who would much rather see Rudy Giuliani or John McCain nominated. Of course, since McCain's poll numbers have fallen into the toilet, the latter nomination isn't likely to happen. On the other hand, the more people hear of Ron Paul, the more they like him. And the more the mainstream media tries to vanish him from the competition. Recently, Paul was not invited to a candidate debate sponsored by an Iowa Taxpayers' group -- doubly unusual, because Paul's stance is that the IRS and income taxes should be abolished. Then again, the head of that Taxpayers' also happens to be one of McCain's campaign managers. At the same time, a newspaper in Kansas ran an article about the Republican candidates, omitting Ron Paul entirely.

Those are just a few of the items that aren't getting covered, even as the news has become All Paris, All the Time.

Fuck Paris Hilton. Fuck the corporate news media. Give us the real news, or just honestly label your programming as Celebrity Tabloid Crap.