Anna Nicole, The Palestinians And The Media Dance

Anna Nicole Smith's life was a train wreck.

Her entire tragic life in the public eye, was predetermined by the choices she made- or didn't make. She was reluctant to give up the spotlight, preferring instead to be a 'victim,' albeit one that was a caricature of real victimhood.

Anna Nicole Smith became 'must see TV,' because despite the fame and noteriety bestowed upon her by a news media that has become concerned with entertainment value rather than informative values. The media knew Anna Nicole Smith would be popular on our TV screens because they knew exactly how we would react to her. She always made the wrong decision and she always made the wrong choice. For us, it was like watching 'Jeopardy.' We were screaming out the 'right answer' even as we watched her stumble. We would get it right. We would know what to do. Anna Nicole Smith always made a spectacle of herself because that was the only way she knew to be recognized.

We forgave Anna Nicole Smith, because she was over the top. We laughed as we watched her swing her hips or jiggle and make fun of herself. We could forgive ourselves for laughing at her (no one ever really laughed with her) because she had lots of money and that would take the edge off anything we might say or think. It wasn't as if she was really getting hurt, right?

Anna Nicole lost her son (who in many ways, paid the price for his mother's selfish obsessions), a tragedy that upends nature. Parents are not meant to bury children. That tragedy is now compounded, because Anna Nicole Smith's mother will bury her daughter.

'If it bleeds, it leads,' has long been the media's First Commandment. They love the salacious images of broken lives and they love images of train wrecks and car crashes. Of course, the longest running train wreck and assortment of broken lives in history can be found in the Palestinian Authority.

For decades, the Palestinians have been accorded a Dali-esque celebrity. Decade upon decade of bad decisions, denial of reality and publicly documented corruption. Rather than editorials asking that the Palestinian leadership be held to account for the implosion of a people, the media encourages the train wreck. The media cannot be bothered to hide their manipulation and encouragement of Palestinians 'resistance,' so the 'right' images be had. If that 'right' image can't be had the first time, the media can stage the event all over again. The media know we will forgive institutionalized violence, racism and bigotry because the Palestinians are poor. The media has rewarded decades of Palestinian 'performances' with status of official victimhood. 'Dance for us,' says the media and the Palestinians, hungrier for the camera and victimhood status than they are for a state and a civilized society, happily oblige.

'Come on Anna Nicole, give us one more sway, one more jiggle.'

The media would have you believe they are 'reporting' news.

The media also obsess over publishing and televising images of the caskets of American soldiers, righteously saying that do just that would honor the fallen soldiers and at the same time, encourage sober debate about the cost and waste of human life that accompanies war.

If the media really cared about the caskets of wasted lives, they would clamor to present the caskets and funerals of the almost 17,000 deaths caused by drunk drivers. Almost three times that number were injured.

To describe American soldiers who perish in Iraq as 'mercenaries' or as 'wasted lives,' is a clear indictment of the media for who and what they have become and to whom they pander. Dying so that others may know freedom is not a 'waste' of anything. It is just the opposite. Every soldier that is killed or injured in the line of duty is another link in the strong chain that secures this nation to her values. That chain's original links stretch back to the War of Independence. The War of 1812, World Wars One and Two, Korea, Vietnam and every war in between added to the strength of that chain.

Wasted lives?

The media is nothing if not predictable. Notwithstanding the still warm body, the search for the next Anna Nicole Smith has already begun, even as the Palestinians are doing their part for the media, pretending that their train wreck existence and hatred is 'civilized.'

The band plays on and the media dances.