Ignorance and Brainwashing, Brought to You by Today's Media

I didn't get out that much today (still sick), so I have a topic reserved for days just like this one. The other day in one of my journalism classes - yes, this is going to be ironic - my prof. was talking about the tabloids and Jon & Kate Plus 8's excessive coverage in them. They said (yes, I know the subject should be singular but anonymity is my goal here) that they were proud to say they don't watch that show.

I wanted to say something like, "Well, clearly you've never seen it because if you had you would know that Kate Gosselin is someone to be admired for being so calm and collected when her whole life has basically been ripped to shreds by the media." Her husband obviously didn't help matters any by being seen with some 20-something woman and then refusing to work through their problems, but I think it's mostly the media that destroyed Kate and Jon's marriage. And because she is being stalked by paparazzi, this makes her a bad person who is exploiting her family for money and her show too tacky and beneath certain people to watch.

In fact, this is exactly what the tabloids and sensationalized media want you to think. They find easy targets to focus on and shove those celebrities at people until they say things like, "Not her again. What trash." How fair is that? I'm guilty of doing this too, especially with Britney Spears. Sure, she's made some poor decisions, but it's been mainly what I've heard about her from the media that formed my opinion. Who even knows if what they say is true half the time?

My point is, we shouldn't judge others based on what some so-called reporter wrote in the copy of Star Magazine we perused in the grocery store checkout line. Sometimes I am ashamed to be going into journalism, but then I realize that if every moral person said that, the world would be full of celebrity news and only celebrity news.

What IU and Pigs Have in Common

Yes, I am sick. No, I don't have the dreaded H1N1 (well, I don't think I do.) It's almost ridiculous how paranoid IU as a whole is becoming about it. Telling students to "isolate themselves" if they have any "flu-like symptoms" is going a bit overboard. Does that mean we can't go to the doctor? To the grocery store to get food or the pharmacy to fill a prescription?

Supposedly the provost, who sent out this mass e-mail, has alerted teachers to their recommendations and therefore, any absences should be "accommodated." Only in one of my classes did the prof parrot what I read in the e-mail, telling us not to come to class if we're in any way, shape or form not feeling well. Everyone else is sticking to the two or three absence rule.

Oh, and the e-mail said to call the health center if you get the flu for more than a few days. What good that will do you, I don't know. I'm thinking you should go before it gets that bad.

In any case, it's easy for the provost to tell students not to go to class if they're feeling sick. To some extent, I agree with them. Obviously, if you're puking or contagious, missing class is a given. But if you only feel like crap, is staying home really worth all that make-up work?

Being sick this weekend gave me enough time to: 1) sleep for almost 20 hours yesterday, 2) finish all the reading I should have done last weekend, and 3) start this blog. There are a lot of things I wish I could write about, but Facebook notes are getting old and my journal is nowhere near ready for publication.

Maybe no one will read this, and maybe a lot of people will. Either way, it sounded like fun to me. I don't have a specific theme; I'd rather write about whatever interests me on a particular day. Who knows? Maybe tomorrow's topic will be West Nile virus.