Mixed Media

I usually don't go off about the media much, but this is going to be more of a "one and done" kind of post. These are all my issues with media and their coverage and treatment of certain subjects. I'm probably going to piss a few people off but, they don't have to read this if they don't want to.

I've never fully understood why we, as a culture, can justify paying millions of dollars to people who throw around a ball every week and sometimes not even doing that, sometimes just sitting on the bench. Honestly? You're going to give hundreds of thousands of dollars to someone who does the exact same thing as some of the kids in my high school do while there are people starving out on the street? The same salary that these people spend on fancy cars and nice houses and fucking designer baseball hats can save thousands of people, feeding them for a while, giving them shelter from the cold. It disgusts me that we can allow this and even feed into it.

It's a typical story: teen idol gets shipped off to rehab for various issues and yet they still get seen by the media as some kind of messed up role model. Okay... what? Honestly, do people really think that this happens in real life? People in rehab don't get treated like celebrities so why should celebrities still get treated as such when they become people in rehab. It may seem harsh, but the old saying "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" still applies to life. If you can't handle all the pressures of being a celebrity, which you should realize when you're getting into it already, you should get out of the game. Don't turn to drugs and drinking as your basic life support, it doesn't work for regular people and it's not going to work for you. And toting yourself off to rehab and making some big deal about it is definitely a mature thing to do. Say you're taking some personal time off and check yourself in to the most remote rehab clinic you can find. I don't care about your partying and drug use, don't flaunt it.

There are families that adopt 6 kids from third world countries and give them the life they couldn't have had any other way. Where are the TV shows about them? Seems like the easiest way to get a reality TV show is to irresponsibly pop out a few dozen kids and trail them along like they're your newest car or something. I'm all for large families, I want one myself, but there is a limit. Nadya Suleman, aka Octomom, actively chose to have all 6 embryos implanted, even after having 6 kids already. The Duggar family has 19 kids already and are still leaving their future child count "up to God." Okay, for one thing, your most recent child almost died from a premature birth. If that was anyone else, they would take it as a sign that they should stop. It's absolutely irresponsible because they don't have the disposable income to raise 19 kids. Without their show and publicity, they would most likely be in poverty or struggling. I still never understand why we can put them up on a pedestal, saying that this is okay and a good family model for other people.

Make your own decisions in life, use common sense, and don't make a fool of yourself. I'm never sure why people always forget these things.

-jrd