Shock eclipses issues

By Editorial

Just when we thought we could escape it over Spring Break, it found ways to still occupy every cable channel on the network. Talk of feeding tubes, Jeb Bush and courts littered the news networks like pop-up ads on the Internet.

What used to strictly occur in the world of pop culture is now crossing into the boundaries of news media: the idea of celebrity-hood. First it was Monica, then it was Laci, and now it is Terri.

What usually happens is a drowning effect. We are exposed to endless coverage for weeks on end, including useless tidbits of information that contribute little to their parent stories and often focus on oftentimes inconsequential mini-facets.

The media has a way of taking the lives of everyday people and popularizing them through their apparent victimization. This was very evident in the Schiavo case, as we heard the same information repeated over and over again.

We don't know what's more disturbing: the fact that interest groups were using Schiavo as a puppet for political propaganda or the fact that the media was using the story as a sensational melodrama to fill 30-second sound bites.

Whether or not the feeding tube should have been disconnected is only a facet of the story; if anything, the Schiavo coverage should have explored the atrocity of the government's involvement in the case. It's disturbing when a governor and legislators can get involved in a personal family matter when there is no legal authority for them to do so. We believe focus should have been shifted to this aspect, as civil liberties were on the verge of being violated.

Unfortunately, the case played out in the media as a kind of feeding tube tug of war.

But then again, this is what happens when the lives of real people are turned into "one-hit wonder" news stories: The real issues behind the sensationalism are ignored and often overlooked, leaving the person behind the coverage to only be forgotten.