Forget Iraq! Hot SF Mayor Newsom has Affair! Stop Press!
by Morra Aarons Mele

Arianna Huffington says it best this morning:

I just finished watching San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom apologize for having a sexual relationship with the wife of his former campaign manager, Alex Tourk.

"I'm deeply sorry," he said during a brief City Hall news conference.

The TV described this as "Breaking News." By what definition? I mean, really, why is this anybody's business -- except for Mr.
Newsom, Mr. Tourk, Mr. Tourk's wife (the evocatively named Ruby Rippey-Tourk), and Mr. Newsom's ex-wife.

Why is this a public matter? Despite my less-than-stellar opinion of much of the media, I am still shocked that with Iraq continuing to implode (with January setting a deadly record for Iraqi civilian deaths, and another 61 killed today), and all the other problems facing the world, the media are willing to use up their precious air-time oxygen with pointless crap like this.

I mean for God's sake, Iraq is going up in flames.

The new National Intelligence Estimate states that sectarian fighting in Iraq has created more violence than Al Qaeda. From cnn.com:
"Unless efforts to reverse these conditions show measurable progress during the term of this estimate in the coming 12 to 18 months, we assess that the overall security situation will continue to deteriorate," the summary says.

Charging that Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence has surpassed the violence spawned by al Qaeda in Iraq, the summary expresses uncertainty about the ability of Iraqi leaders to move beyond sectarian interests, fight extremists, end corruption and build national institutions."

Comments

 

And one more thing

Apparently, while speaking from the Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting in DC, John Edwards just called for more than a "non-binding resolution" opposing troop escalation.

Amen. The non-binding resolution may be a good first step for Democrats and Republicans in the Senate to align, and state their position on the record, but please, let some action follow process.

 

In the Old Days Men Had the Rack

One of my favorite Oscar Wilde quotes holds true a hundred years later:

In the old days men had the rack. Now they have the press. That is an improvement, certainly. But still it is very bad and wrong, and demoralising. The tyranny that it proposes to exercise over peoples' private lives seems to be quite extraordinary. The fact is that the public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesmanlike habits, supplies their demands...and what aggravates the mischief is that the journalists who are most to blame are not the amusing journalists who write for what are called Society papers. The harm is done by the serious, thoughtful, earnest journalists who solemnly, as they are doing at present, will drag before the eyes of the public some incident in the private life of a great statesman, of a man who is the leader of political thought as he is a creator of political force, and invite the public to discuss the incident, to exercise authority in the matter, to give their views, and not merely to give their views, but to carry them into action, to dictate to the man on all other points, to dictate to his party, to dictate to his country; in fact, to make themselves ridiculous, offensive, and harmful. The private lives of men and women should not be told to the public. The public have nothing to do with them at all.

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