For all my defense of media — mainstream, liberal, news, advertising, whichever kind — I still managed to be amazed by what captures their fascination and what can result from it.
Case in point: the Cleburne earthquakes.
You may not be aware, but the story was picked up by the Associated Press and made its way into the The New York Times and the Guardian of London.
That’s right. Editors in those two cities decided that the minor earthquakes in a medium Texas city they’ve probably never heard of before and wouldn’t be able to locate on a map without the help of Mapquest or Google Maps was worthy of their readers’ attention.
And these were not the less than 200 word brief stories we run from time to time. No, they were regular stories complete with quotes from local residents and our illustrious mayor.
I’ve heard tell there’s a large ex-pat contingent of Texans in New York City, but London?
What did readers across the pond think when they read our story?
“I say, old boy, did you read where Clayborn, Texas, had four earthquakes last week. Seems they were wee things, but apparently the number set some sort of record.”
“Do, tell. Is that what they mean when they say everything’s bigger in Texas?”
“I don’t know, old chap. But I believe I’ll book my next holiday to seek out this new wonder of the world.”
Even better, the Wall Street Journal sent a reporter to check the situation out. And, despite no one having indicated that the earthquakes could be definitely pinned on the natural gas industry, the reporter went so far as to suggest the industry could be in trouble because of the quaking.
What, we’re going to shut the gas companies down and send them home? Think of the rattling that would cause on the local economy’s walls.
After moving on from our earthshaking news, the next news fascination shifted to the superpowers of the president who was able, I can hardly believe it, to kill a fly with his bare hands.
If I hadn’t already written about the evils of exclamation points in journalism, I would have been tempted to throw at least one at the end of that last sentence.
I saw it on television news, heard it reported on the radio and saw the links posted high up on various news Web sites.
This is news? Really? Heck, I’ve caught flies and other insects right out of the air with my bare hands. No one made a fuss over that, except for the lightning bugs I caught and put in a jar.
My kids were sort of impressed until they figured out if it they stood still with their hands outstretched, one of the critters would land and shine for them.
They were little at the time and believed their powers were greater than mine. They were probably right.
As if that story weren’t stupid enough, then the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had to try to grab some spotlight time and upbraided the president for his inhumane treatment of the fly.
Hey, he picked it up at the end of the interview.
Maybe he gave it a respectful burial.
PETA reportedly sent Obama a catch and release kit so the next time a fly dared interrupt the interview of the leader of the free world, he could waste more time catching the pest and taking it outside to freedom.
Unless, of course, he allowed an aide to take care of the matter, but he seems too hands-on for that.
You’ve heard the expression, “slow news day.”
They happen, allowing minor events to rise to levels of importance they otherwise could not attain.
Still, I have a hard time believing, given the economy and wars and whatnot, that quaking Cleburne and fly killing reached such rarified air.
Michael O’Connor can be reached at editor@trcle.com or you may comment on this and other articles in the paper at our Web site, cleburnetimesreview.com.
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