Media should focus on real news

What do a white rapper, a gay pop star and a famous race car driver all have in common? No, it's not the guest list for the annual Trailer Park Awards. Rather, all three have recently been in the spotlight a little too long. \nThe past week and a half has seen its share of so-called "drama," which was largely created by the media themselves. Last Sunday, auto racing legend Dale Earnhardt was killed at the Daytona 500. While I'm not downplaying the life or impact on the sport Earnhardt had, I was a little disturbed as a journalist that CNN covered the event as "breaking news." \nHere you have a sport where people drive cars at 200 mph around a circular track and somehow it comes as a huge shock when someone gets killed. In the days following the event, both TV and newspapers gave the death of Earnhardt more than its fair share of coverage. \nBut the death of Eddie Mathews, a hall-of-fame baseball player who, along with Hank Aaron, teamed up for the most productive homerun duo baseball has ever seen, received only a brief mention. At the height of their popularity both figures meant a lot to many different people, but the guy who races a car gets more coverage. \nI, like millions of others, can drive a car, but hitting a baseball 312 feet is something I'll never accomplish. Mathews' death wasn't considered "breaking news," and unless you scanned the back portion of the sports pages, you wouldn't have even known he died in the first place. \nSomewhere, back in the days of my introductory journalism classes, I remember something about the term "fair coverage." Earnhardt's popularity was certainly at its highest at the time of his death, but Mathews enjoyed the same level of success at the pinnacle of his career. Do we turn away from the past to satisfy the current trend? I should hope not.\nIf the coverage of Earnhardt's death didn't leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, surely the Grammys did. How could you not have heard about the controversial performance by rap superstar Eminem and singer Elton John when it was pretty much considered to be the most important event in the history of mankind? \nForget bombing Iraq -- a duet between a gay performer and an outspoken critic of homosexuality should indeed take center stage (as well as the top headlines) of any major newspaper. The media frenzy that ensued at the Staples Center was downright comical. As journalists interviewed various artists, the first question out of the reporter's mouth usually involved the word "Eminem." While Eminem and Elton John's performance attracted the spotlight, most people seemed to have forgotten that somewhere inside the Los Angeles arena, people were actually getting awards for musical achievement. \nToday's media is in a position to create a fire and continue to flame it until it either erupts in controversy or extinguishes in a breeze of disinterest. It saddens me to think one day, somewhere at an editorial board meeting, I may very well be asked to sacrifice everything I've been taught at the expense of the death of a race car driver. \nStories like Earnhardt's death and Eminem's performance deserve coverage, but it baffles me that two events that have little overall impact in the global balance can receive so much attention. At a time when American war planes were aiming their missiles at Iraqi targets, the American media aimed its cameras on a white rapper from Detroit. \nWe as a society are infatuated with the notion of the celebrity to the point that we lose perspective on what's really important. Sure, celebrities play a role in our lives. They're on TV when we come home at night, they're on the big screen for us to see on the weekends and they even drive cars around a race track, all to entertain us. \nDespite the fact that they make more money than I'll ever see, the real issues like war and foreign policy deserve the headlines. There is a reason newspapers have multiple sections, such as arts and entertainment and sports. \nThose pages exist to provide the news of those topics to those who care.\nLet Earnhardt and Eminem have the headlines, just leave them off the news pages.