Perpetuating Idiocy

Apparently, when the nation needs high drama it turns to celebrity trials. Think Kobe, think OJ, think Bill Clinton, think overly dramatic lawyers, sound bite defenses, and, all too often, no real sense for the truth of a situation.

Take Kobe's situation as an example. Reading peoples' opinions on the subject would have left you imagining that they actually knew what had gone on between him and his accuser--which, of course, they didn't. The only thing I can say with absolute certainty is that Kobe is guilty of being a lying cheat who had no problem forgetting his wife when faced with a willing woman--and, while that's more than enough for me to form an opinion about the man, I couldn't tell you whether he's a rapist or she's an extortionist.

Now we have Michael Jackson. Not only is the "King of Pop" (a term that might have been meaningful at one time, but now just leaves a sly smile on most faces) on trial, but also he'll have an all-star cast of celebrities and celebrity has-beens testifying as to his character. Every step of the trial will be front-page news, every little gasp and titillating fact will be drooled over around water coolers, and opinions of his guilt or innocence will flow from the uninformed troops.

I don't know whether he's guilty or innocent, but I wouldn't let my kid sleep over at his house. Of course, I would be disturbed by any middle aged man who wanted to have a sleep over with my kid--I can say, without a doubt, that he's guilty of inappropriate behavior with children. Not that he's molested them, not that he's fed them liquor or drugs or a steady diet of porn, but that he's refused his role as an adult in relation to children.

I'll trust the jury to get the verdict right because, in the main, that's precisely what juries do. In the mean time, I'll resent that his face and this idiotic trial will be dominating the news. And now Jackson has been admitted to the hospital on the way to the courtroom for some unnamed malady--and Drudge makes it his emergency-light headline of the day, it's "above the fold" news at the FoxNews site, it's the spotlight story at CNN, and, well, you get the point.

What I resent most, I guess, is that I'm perpetuating the idiocy by writing about the trial while the only point I really want to make is this: don't we have more important things to be worried about?