I have to make a brief crotchety old man rant. I woke up this morning and checked my dozen morning news and bargain sites and CNN.com’s top story was the ‘America Idol’ winner. Are you serious? In the previous 36 hours there have been a dozen American soldiers KIA in Iraq and the top story in the US is who won ‘American Idol.’ This is a reflection of the state of the society that we live in. Everyone wants to take a stance on the war and give their two cents but now apparently thousands of people dying isn’t as important as reality our coveted reality TV. We are at war yet I’m so glad I know the outcome of some stupid TV show. It appears that Americans don’t care about anything unless it is on TV 24/7. Everyone cared about the war and had an opinion about it when it was on TV 24/7. Now that it’s only a blip on the nightly news and we are bombarded with reality TV show commercials instead of war reports our new passions and opinions have switched from invasion and war to who our favorite pop singer is. This short term memory, media driven, brainwashed, unable to make decisions for ourselves unless someone tells us what to think, TV (like big brother in our living rooms telling us what we’re interested in) society that we live in today is a very disgusting thing. Props to FOX News on this one. They kept ‘American Idol’ off the front page although they do have “‘Jeopardy!’ King Dethroned.” But Ken Jennings is a tough guy to beat. Here is the contrast in headlines from CNN to FOX News:

CNN: ‘American Idol’ No. 4 named

FOX News: “Ten Die in Iraq Violence”

A big shame on you goes to CNN.