Image by cizauskas via FlickrBefore we go too much further, we'd like to congratulate the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (also known as Prince William and the former Kate Middleton) on their marriage. Two billion people looked on as the royal nuptials spread a little joy into Britain's otherwise mundane existence.In this country, the happy couple has had to compete for time with a would-be politician congratulating himself for forcing the President of the United States to prove once again that he was born here, the ongoing political unrest in the Middle East, and with a devastating cluster of tornadoes that tore through the South, killing over 300 people and destroying millions of dollars of property.
Add to that the scheduled launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, which was postponed by NASA because of mechanical problems. Be honest, folks. Would you have been interested in this if it wasn't for the fact that one of the pilots is married to a wounded Congresswoman, and she was supposed to be at Cape Canaveral to watch the launch?
As much as the coverage from London has been more pandering than illuminating to the female demographic the networks and their sponsors are trying to reach (there was speculation about who designed Kate's wedding dress. Really?!), the transitions made by Katie Couric of CBS and Diane Sawyer of ABC were awkward and jarring. How could it not be? Death and pageantry don't mix.
Priorities. Priorities. This is what happens when network news divisions are so compromised by cutbacks of all kinds, leaving news gathering to unreliable social media, eyewitness accounts and relationships with other international broadcasters. Maybe that's why the Obama administration seems caught off guard every time a situation comes up.
Yes, we need a break from the hardships that consume our lives from time to time, especially when a handsome prince takes his beautiful princess for a bride. But news shouldn't be about escapism when, more often than not, the world resembles a Grimm's Fairy Tale.
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