Media Roundup

Apparently, the kid who bombed the Starbucks in NYC was inspired by Fight Club. It's obviously more meat for the violence in the media debate, but it is not like a child killing another with a wrestling move. The ideas this kid got from Fight Club were not simply violent but also political. Bombing the Starbucks was an act of terrorism, and thus was a political act. That doesn't excuse it, that simply means that he didn't have to go to Fight Club to get the ideas that prompted him to bomb the star bucks. He could have gotten them from Che Guevara or Trotsky or any number of political theorists. So to blame Fight Club would be extremely naive.

Kronkite is dead and we will never see his like again. Not because he was so unique, but because the internet, cable, and the fragmentation of information have rendered it impossible for anyone to control that much attention. Never again will one man represent the voice and view of middle America (nor one woman. Sorry, Ms. Palin).

It was refreshing to see an editorial asking if, in venerating Michael Jackson, we are worshiping a monster. I don't know. The guy was acquitted. I got swept up in Michael's death a bit too, and I stand by what I've written, but it is good to see that not everyone was taken in by the mourning.

Michael, Farah Fawcet, Carl Maldin, Kronkite, and that Billy Mays guy. Tough summer so far. But did anybody notice (besides the Times) when MacNamara died a couple weeks ago? That's at least as big a deal in the non-celebrity world.