Frivolous Rubbish

Today, Bill Ward "throws down" with a writer from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the result is a front page "article" in which the two journalists trade barbs like schoolchildren. It boils down to this: "You elected a wrestler as governor." "Oh yeah? Well, you had Jeffrey Dahmer." Na-na na-na boo-boo.

I didn't realize that, when the paper changed the name of the E section back to "Variety" that "Variety" was a euphemism for "drivel receptacle". The Variety section holds so much crap, it's like a Rubbermaid container full of useless junk leftover from a yard sale. Case in point: to the right of the juvenile "Badgering Wisconsin" article, there is an amateurish sidebar that attempts to rename TV shows along the lines of "Jon & Kate Plus Eight" becoming "Kate Plus Eight". This could be clever, but what does Bill Ward come up with? He gives us "Desperate Divorcees", "Everybody Hates Raymond" and "Queen of Queens".

Bravo.

"Everybody Loves Raymond" and "King of Queens" are no longer on the air, to say nothing of the fact that the "Everybody Hates Raymond" joke became cliche after the show's first season. Also, one of my California relatives used that "Queen of Queens" joke on me when I mentioned I was moving to Astoria--it was a lame joke then, but at least at that time the show was still running.

This kind of stuff (er, fluff?) belongs out here in the hinterlands of the blogosphere, not in the realm of professional journalism. No wonder papers are going under--no one wants to do any research on anything interesting or interview anyone or review any books. No one wants to do even a schmaltzy human interest piece! They'd rather churn out this frivolous rubbish while cartoon states that resemble Blue Meanies take up a quarter of the page.

Front Page Flop

Today, the Strib leads with an article about the Vikings and how they want a new stadium. Leaving aside the volatile issue of public expenditures on behalf of millionaire sports figures, I want to explore another issue: why is this story front page news? I'm sure there are far more important stories that could occupy that spot today. The New York and LA Times both lead with stories about Obama in Denmark pitching Chicago as host for the Olympic Games and the rise of the jobless rate to 9.8%.

Ok, so maybe the Strib isn't exactly in league with The New York Times, as it doesn't serve as large a market. But that doesn't mean it can't aspire to be a tad more relevant. After all, the Vikings have their very own section of the newspaper--it's called the sports section--that is the perfect place for headlines about their whining for a new stadium. Can't we save page A1 for something meatier? Like David Letterman's off-air sexcapades?