Its ridiculous that I know who he is. I've never seen American Idol and I don't care about who wins. So, why do I know this guy's name? I know who he is because he's a big part of the pollution of popular culture. He's ubiquitous on TV. Even the New York Times has written about him. And to think, their motto is: "All the News that's fit to Print".
Here is a 17 year old kid who is now almost unavoidable. Before Sanjaya, Anna Nicole Smith was almost unavoidable. Neither has much talent and neither has made any real contribution to society. Both have been given hours and hours of prime time television coverage. "The News" has skidded from journalism into supermarket tabloid coverage. Now we have the firing of Don Imus for saying something he's been saying for years.
MSNBC has 3 one hour news shows that run consecutively and breathlessly announce, "Breaking News!" to tell us what we'd just been told. How long can a story be "breaking"? For that matter, how long can it be "news"? At some point it is no longer new.
There are a finite number of hours devoted to informing us about current events. The more of these hours that are squandered on Anna Nicole and Sanjaya; the fewer hours are available to spend on things that matter. Given the choice between meaningless chatter and things that matter they too often choose meaningless chatter.
Sanjaya, baby.
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