As Reality as it Gets

I didn't see it live but Fox News was covering a car chase in Arizona and decided to go to a 5-second delay in case something bad happened. Well...something bad happened. The dude getting chased, exited the car, stumbled around and then put a bullet in his temple. It was all shown live while Shep Smith supposedly was trying to get them to cut away but the delay didn't seem to have been long enough.

Ace wrote about this and gives a good summation of how I feel but I want to extend it a bit.

American is a nation that loves exciting things in a big way. People watch Jersey Shore not because we like Snooki but because they want to see a drunken Snooki mix it up with some other fat chick who invades our shore towns from NYC or Long Island and possibly slighted her by being an even drunker, fatter more obnoxious piece of shit.

We all pay to see movies where people get killed because it entertains us. Death on the screen is a drug to us summed up quite nicely on the Tool song Vicarious.

Don't look at me like I am a monster, Frown out your one face, But with the other, Stare like a junkie, Into the TV, Stare like a zombie, While the mother, Holds her child, Watches him die, Hands to the sky crying, Why, oh why? 'cause I need to watch things die, From a distance

We thrive on violence and will pay to see it. Other news channels will tsk tsk and say what horrible people Fox News employs. They'll get all high and mighty and preachy but they will also know that while they are decrying it, they will be ruing the fact they didn't cover it. "If it bleeds it leads" has always been the mantra and always will be.

 Here's the video and note that you don't see blood but you know exactly what happened. A life was snuffed out by the person who lived it. Why? We don't know and may never. I feel sorry for the guy that he felt his only recourse was to put a slug in his brain and I feel for anyone he left behind but this is news and this is a current events blog.

Now removed by You Tube.

Here's the video for Vicarious and Maynard expresses exactly what we are all like but won;t ever admit among nice company.