Priorities

I hate Charlie Sheen. He’s a chauvinistic, arrogant, vile little . . . oh wait. I COULD CARE LESS.

Charlie Sheen is one of the millions of people in the world who have made some really, really terrible choices. Yes, he’s a movie star and has therefore has given people permission to scrutinize his life. That doesn’t mean he deserves our scrutiny.

Let me be clear. I am not arguing that Charlie Sheen deserves privacy. I am arguing that in the entire span of world history, he’s not even a blip. Yes, I believe everyone has value as a person, but not everyone is newsworthy. The fact that almost every major news network including CNN has resorted to tabloid-style exclusive interviews and gossip is low, even for news networks.

True, our system of receiving news has been broken for a long time. Newscasters who have no qualifications other than a loud voice and—if they’re a woman—a pretty face, research teams who cut and paste from a single source, and editors who trim and splice to meet their agenda are among the most egregious of transgressions.

But when protests and violence are raging in Africa and the Middle East, when the rights of civil servants are being threatened in our own country, when Congress is on the brink of a standstill due to partisan arrogance, why is our populace worried about the personal life of a man who, though admittedly gross, pales in comparison to some of the drugged-out, child abusers that I have personally met?

Priorities, people.