B-I-G Stories

Trey Smith

Jodie Foster is gay and Lance Armstrong is a doper. These are the large stories of the day – at least, the stories that people in the media are having serious palpitations about.

Of course, there is no news here.

Foster has lived openly with a partner and their adopted children, then broken up just as publicly: all in all, a quarter century or so of being indubitably gay. Indeed, her coming out at the Golden Globes was, in fact, a coming-out to say that she had long ago come out. Nevertheless, paroxysms of media attention and praise.

Armstrong has been meticulously investigated, found guilty, and stripped of all his awards, standing, and reputation. He's now pretty much the last word in steroids. And, to boot, we've discovered that he really isn't very nice: he's sports' nastiest guy. But he is taping with Oprah for a much anticipated show on which he will admit that he's a doper. And everybody, at least everybody in the media, is on the edge of their seats.

Two fabulous nonstories, with no reveals (as they say in the reality television show business) whatsoever, and everybody, everybody in the media anyway, is gaga, intent on reporting that … Jodie is gay and Lance is a doper. This is the news.

Except this is really not the news. Rather, what's going on here is our fascination – that is, our fascination as media people – with how we are used and manipulated. That's what's mesmerizing.
~ from And the Winners at Media Manipulation Are: Jodie Foster and Lance Armstrong by Michael Wolff ~

It is always fascinating what the mainstream media chooses to fixate on. More often than not, their fixations are fluff stories, mere distractions from the important news of the day.

Imagine if the mainstream media put this amount of time, energy and column inches into covering the trial of Bradley Manning or repeated American drone strikes in Muslim countries or the Wall Street foreclosuregate scandal or the manufactured aspects of the "fiscal cliff" drama or the various machinations of the Koch brothers or how capitalist greed has wrecked Haiti or any one of hundreds of important stories that matter.

Aah, but they aren't going to do that. We don't need to know THAT stuff.