Over the past few weeks my co-worker and I have been commenting on the rather bizarre news events that have seemed to captivate the nation this summer. Granted, due to my job and all that, I might have a heightened awareness of the drivel out there, but really:

• Yes, “Utah Boy” is a cute story and sort of sad, but is this national news? Kids disappear like this all of the time. Why is “Utah Boy” such a big deal?
• Sure, this whole Natalee Holloway missing in Aruba thing is tragic: I really do feel bad for this girl and I understand why her family is freaking out, but, again, people go missing all the time. Why is her case so different?
• And who can forget the Runaway Bride a.k.a. Jennifer Wilbanks. As the nation worried that she had been abducted by scary dirty Mexicans it turned out she ran to Vegas. My favorite part of this story was hearing a caller complain on conservative talk radio a few days later that he wasted his prayers on her since she turned up alive… umm… didn’t he get what he prayed for? Her health and safety and all that?
• Now we have a summer of shark attacks (I’ve always hated Florida, so no comment here…)

Some would argue that the Michael Jackson case could be added to this, or even the recent marriage of Ben and Jen and who knows what else.

Point of the story: what the media has been hyping up this summer has been bizarre. Forget about the Iraq War, the worsening situation in Afghanistan, gay marriage spreading throughout Canada and Spain, mad cow disease, etc. News Alert: The father of the Dutch teen has been taken into custody!

Thankfully, Salon.com has noticed and, in particular, called out FOX News for hypocritically urging the country to go to war and then passing up war coverage for more shark attacks and whatnot. I highly recommend “War? What war?” which smartly points out that now that the war isn’t going as they expected, FOX has abandoned the war (either because it’s just not appealing to the public anymore or to make the public forget?) in favor of more sensational stories.

My favorite part of the piece is the analysis about September 11 and how “after September 11 everything changed” when really it hasn’t. Americans, again, could care less about international politics and would rather follow news items that have absolutely no impact on their lives.

Like I said, working in a media-related field might make me more aware of this (and frustrated at the same time), but I think the Salon article really strikes some interesting points.