we have been slighted and no one gives a damn

so while i've been a bit preoccupied lately about the whole birfday thingy doo-hopper, i've neglected to post about something that has been bothering me for the last few days. it's this whole american media thing. who in the hell do we think we are? basically the only news we cover is american news and if we do happen to report on an international issue, it is always shedding light on how this affects us somehow.

case in point: london bombings. i know, i know, it was an act of terrorism, but that doesn't mean it needs to be compared to 9/11. and the fact that al-qaeda made threats to the united states shouldn't be a shocker for anyone...there are people who's lives are dedicated to terrorizing america. yes, it sucks. but get over it already.

now, my real problem has nothing to do with the london bombings, but everything to do with the coverage-or lack thereof-over the largest criminal hearing ever in french history. 62 men and women were sentenced yesterday for a sex ring they ran in angers (a small, poor town). sure, operating a sex ring out of your house is a pretty sick offense; but it is not the real issue. these people actually pimped their 45 children to one another in exchange for money, cigarettes, alcohol, and one time even for a new car tire. the children ranged in age from 6 months to 15 years and the abuse took place between 1999 and 2002. of course, one of the children reported the abuse towards the beginning of it all, but nothing was done.

one of the craziest things about the story is that these adults were largely illiterate and extremely poor and due to differing reasons, the majority of the families were being helped by social services. confusing how something as horrendous as this can get by social service workers, isn't it? but that could be a whole other story in itself.

i looked up cnn and msnbc archives under a slew of different query's to find out how many times someone bothered to report on what should have been a massive story. i found no more than 5 or 6 articles. bullshit! i'm embarrassed for my industry. but don't anybody get too worried if we look at it in perspective; we did get an update on the michael jackson trial virtually every day. you know, like what he was wearing, what celebrity was testifying. those are the truly important facts of life.

on a final note, don't dictators use control of the news outlets to keep their citizens uninformed about what is going on in the world and to trick them into believing whatever it is their regime wants? not to say we are under a dictatorship, but it seems pretty odd to me that we are left in the dark on so many happenings around the world while our government (which we, the people, run through a representative democracy) goes around butting their noses into all of these people's business. not to say that this sex ring has anything to do with america's global policy, but if we don't hear more than a peep about the biggest criminal trial in french history than how can we believe we are hearing everything about iraq, north korea, afghanistan, iran, etc? bottom line: we aren't. and no one seems to care.

"no i won't cry on the outside, anymore."