Slow News Week

In the absence of anything of substance happening in America (other than the impossible to follow labyrinth that is the Scooter Libby trial), our grand 4th estate, the media, decided to pick up on and run with all sorts of non-stories:

1. Obama smokes!
Apparently Barack Obama smokes cigarettes, or at least he did, claiming he quit on Christmas Day. The right claims he is doing it only to pander to liberals. Only in a slow news week can a man have decided to do something to improve his health 6 weeks ago and be accused of playing politics (oh, how I wish that was true).

2. Castro eats!
Fidel Castro apparently had not been eating. Now he is. End of story.

3. Nancy Pelosi wants a super-plane!
As Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi is granted access to a military plane (presumably for safety reasons) for public business in her home district, same as former Speaker Dennis Hastert. She said if the plane is unable to fly her home to San Fransisco non-stop, she would prefer to fly commercial. Somehow, that became her abusing her power as S of the H, whining and complaining for a Jumbo Jet capable of "bringing a circus" along with her (thanks to CNN's Lou Dobbs for that one). You'd think around time the White House came out in her defense was the time this should have died, but, predictably, it lives on, because it's a slow news week.

4. Rupert Murdoch admits agenda-setting at FoxNews!
At the Davos economic summit Rupert Murdoch admitted that at Fox News they attempted to shape public opinion heading into the war, strongly supporting the Bush plan, which drew the ire of media watchdogs everywhere, declaring Fox must now remove their 'Fair and Balanced' pith. Of course, this misses the point that all news attempts to set the agenda, deciding what to report or not report and in what order is putting forth an agenda of what you think is important or what the public should care about. Murdoch isn't even the first one to say it. For instance, America's favorite "golden age of news" anchor Walter Cronkite:
"We cannot be simply a mirror to the world. We've all got to set an agenda of what is most important to lead this broadcast, if you please or leads the piece in the newspaper on the basis of the fact that we have a responsibility to call these things to people's attention, whether they or -- this is the first piece they're going to want to read or not. "

5. Diaper!
Were it not for her diaperedness, that crazy astronaut lady would never have been the story it became. The unfortunate thing is we run her into the ground and ruin her life, making the biggest possible deal out of her wearing diapers, ever glossing over the fact that she was a mother of 3, never stopping to consider the effect this could have on her now permanently tease-worthy children. The NASA connection makes it worth reporting, but the round-the-clock reportage for 2 days is further evidence of a slow news week.

6. RIP Anna Nicole Smith...by the way, who was your baby-daddy
Celebrity deaths are usually juicy fodder for E! and the news for 1 day, built on celebrating the lives of the deceased, but this Anna Nicole Smith thing is peppered with the tactless questions about drug use and who fathered her child. Do you think any of these media folks really cares about her child? Probably not. But do they love salacious gossip? You betcha, anything for eyeballs in a slow news week. (As an aside, salacious is just one of the adjectives that sounds exactly like what it means)