Breaking It Down

With the latest going on with our friend Charlie Sheen it is yet again obvious that there is nothing America loves more than seeing someone in the middle of a complete break down or melt down….call it what you want. Year in and year out we find our news coverage flooded with stories of Hollywood celebs who are literally hitting rock bottom in front of our eyes. Most of the time it seems that this coverage is more focus on exploiting the celeb for ratings than actually getting the person help.

And why do we seem to buy into it from a viewership and readership standpoint. Obviously they would not spend so much time covering it if we didn’t take the bait and follow the break down and said coverage of it so intently.

I’ve had to actually take efforts to “ignore” the Sheen story but between my reading of legit news sources, and my addiction to social networking, its basically impossible to get away from it. But Sheen is just the latest focus, in a few months it will be another star but my question is this; why is this the norm? Why do we buy into it? Why can’t we turn away from the train wreck all so often?

Don’t mistake my questioning of all of this as acting though I’m not guilty. I just want us all to think about the why’s of it all. What is it in human nature (or at least the nature we’ve come accustomed to it modern day America) to focus our attention on things like this when the news stories that are truly effecting our day to day lives are being ignored. More people can tell me about this Charlie Sheen issue than about the budget quarrels going on in DC. Just one example….think about it all. Again….not judging and not saying I’m innocent….just analyzing the why’s.

As always I leave saying PEACE