Why Bush won, at the price of 50 cents

I rarely buy the Dallas Morning News, because I find it difficult as a matter of principle to fork out my hard-earned quarters for a Corporate Media Arm for the Administration, posing as A Newspaper With Unbiased and Informative Journalistic Efforts. But yesterday I found myself out to breakfast with nothing to read, and that just won't do, as I am nothing if not addicted to reading while I eat (alone). I purchased a copy of the Dallas Morning News, knowing darn well what I was getting into.

So, let's take a look at the editors' decisions concerning yesterday's Dallas Morning News, shall we? Buried inside the front section were the following very important stories:

"Indictment portrays Padilla as minor figure in conspiracy," the story about how the Administration has "held [Juan Padilla] without charges at a navy brig since 2002 after being labeled an enemy combatant," only to now charge him on minor conspiracy charges linked to plans "to support radical Islamic fighters" everywhere but the U.S. (page 7A).

"Dismissed FEMA chief starts consulting firm," a story about Michael Brown, the worst disaster-responder ever, now charging money to advise people on how to respond to disasters (page 2A).

"Lawmakers who helped tribes took donations," a story about the ever-widening Abramoff scandal. This one explains that "more than a dozen members of Congress intervened to help Indian tribes win federal school construction money while accepting political donations from the tribes, their lobbyist Jack Abramoff or his firm." (page 10A)

Well, of course, there is a limited amount of front page space in any paper. Surely the really important stories took up that space, right? What important stories, you ask, did the Dallas Morning News choose to include on their front page? These stories:

"Video downloads aren't like peas in an iPod yet," a story about the "highly competitive" market for MP3 player downloads, in which each download is available only through different competing markets. (Above the fold--top story)

"Down to the wire," a story about the Cowboys/Broncos football game, which takes up more space than any other story on the front page, including the story titled, "Suicide car blast kills 30 in Iraq." (Above and below the fold)

The icing on the cake of this oh-so-entertaining installment of the Dallas Morning News? The day's featured letter to the editor (printed in a box, with an illustration), from a John Kevin McMillan in Austin, Texas. Mr. McMillan wrote about a story regarding the only finalist for the University of Texas' presidency, a man who is currently the dean of the law school. The article he writes about referenced, among other things, the dean's affinity for the television series "The Simpsons." Here is Mr. McMillan's take:

For a law school dean to admit that he greatly admires that show is tantamount to confessing that he does not truly believe in law and order.

The Simpsons is one of the most anti-American and decadently destructive television shows I have ever seen. It is heartless, dizzying, schizophrenic and headache inducing. It revels in anarchy, chaos, flippancy, entropy, fraud, incompetence, lawlessness, juvenile delinquency, heartlessness and crass consumerism, accompanied by rampant materialism.

The characters' reckless misadventures suggest that Americans are mischief-prone sensation-seekers hellbent on pursuing whims in the guise of having a "lifestyle." Deeper religious or moral values and a level-headed consistency of conduct are beyond them.

As a UT alumnus, I am dismayed to see the UT System Board of Regents is considering no alternatives to William Powers, Jr.

When I read the second quoted paragraph above, I thought Mr. McMillan had segued into a complaint about the Bush Administration. But I'm guessing that this guy voted for Bush, as he seems more concerned about the content of a television show (is UT not teaching its students the difference between "reality" and "entertainment"?) than he is about the incompetency of a much more important group of folks than the Simpsons.

As web sites like Daily Kos show, many, many of our fellow Americans are well-informed concerning current events. But next time you encounter individuals who are not aware of simple facts, such as the fact that weapons of mass destruction have yet to be found in Iraq, thousands of deaths after our invasion for the status purpose of there being weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, you need look no further than papers like the Dallas Morning News to figure out how they could not know.