Rant: Susan Boyle Is Not News, Simon Takes The Nation Of Suckers

A holiday is one of those rare opportunities for me to catch the local and national news, at length. Unfortunately, such occasions usually prove to be a source of aggravation and annoyance. Such was the case today, when shortly after waking up, I turned on GMA, and the first story I heard was regarding Susan Boyle's second appearance on the talent show, "Britain Has Talent". Having no greater interest in the story than who won an episode of "The Gong Show" in 1976, I promptly changed the channel. On to NBC and "The Today Show", and lo and behold, there she was again; Susan Boyle. Seven minutes of Susan Boyle, to be exact. Not only that, the spectacular promise of not just one, but the top two American Idol contestants to appear perform shortly thereafter. Oh, joy! Now I don't have anything against metro-sexuals, or whatever kind of -sexuals these people are, but, to have the winners of a talent show constantly crammed down my throat by the media is the about as palatable as the last pancake in a pancake eating contest.

When the whole Susan Boyle story broke a couple of weeks ago, I was suspicious. Sure, she sang very well, and yes she was ugly, but the whole thing had the scent of a plant. There had to be something driving this - an angle. As it turns out, the angle is that NBC will be trying to sell the fledgling American version of "Britain Has Talent" ("America Has Talent"), at the end of June. If I recall correctly, the show has aired in seasons past, and it has been more or less a flop. But, with the whole Susan Boyle story, and follow-up spin story of some kid who could sing whose mother was in a wheelchair (thankfully this big spin story didn't catch on), NBC and Simon Cowell are angling for a summer sensation. Which brings me to a dual point, our media is completely void of any originality, they are pathetic, and Simon Cowell is a genius who has learned to play them like Nintendo (that is, if people still play Nintendo).

ABC is perhaps the worst culprit. Sure, every time the American Idol show makes a headline, Fox gains because they have the show, and NBC, it could be argued, gains by the potential viewers of America Has Talent, which they air. But ABC? What about the other networks? What is wrong with these people? Don't they realize that they are being complicit in forfeiting millions of viewers by taking the easy road of regurgitating the easy story. Has the media gone so popcorn, so unimaginative that they are incapable of producing original content? Apparently so, and Simon Cowell knows it. Just feed the media a story that has video footage, a story, and no work and the media is all over it. You have to hand it to him, he may not be American, but he sure has talent when it comes to playing the weak sheep that are our media. Remind me to tune into BBC if I want actual news.

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