நான் விரும்புவது நமீதாவைத்தான்

மக்கள் என்ன விரும்புகிறார்களோ அதைத்தானே தர முடியும்?

வாசகர்களுக்கு என்ன வேண்டும் என்பது முந்தைய காலத்தில் புரியாத புதிராக இருந்தது. இன்றைய சூடான இடுகைகள் காலத்தில் ‘நான் அதெல்லாம் படிப்பதேயில்ல’ என்று வெளியில் மேனாமினுக்கி விட்டு, கதவ சாத்தி க்ளிக்கினாலும் வெளியில் தெரிந்துவிடுகிறது.

அமெரிக்க தொலைக்காட்சிகளுக்கு இந்த விஷயம் தெரிந்திருக்கிறது. மும்பை சாலைகளில் சகட்டு மேனிக்கு தீவிரவாதிகள் சுட்டுக் கொண்டிருக்க, அமெரிக்க டிவி நிறுவனங்கள் அதைக் கண்டுகொள்ளவில்லை.

பாஸ்டன் க்ளோபும் நியு யார்க் டைம்சும் தலையங்கக் கட்டுரை தீட்டினாலும் என்ன பயன்? யாரும் அதை படிக்கவில்லை என்கிறது இந்த அலசல்

Fluff wins | Weekly Dig

So, you would think that the tragic events that shook Mumbai last Wednesday would have interrupted all that noise. You would be wrong. In fact, on Wednesday night, none of the networks cancelled their very important programming—like Private Practice and Law & Order—to deliver breaking news (at that point, we knew about the hostage situation and 80 people had been declared dead)

if you look at the Globe’s most emailed stories for this past week, the popular articles were overwhelmingly asinine. In first place, with 1,049 recommendations, was “Facebook Broke My Heart,”

Then stories on the SAT not being as important to college admission as it used to be, rats sniffing out bombs and 25 things to do in Boston for under $25 … all of these came before the headlining story on boston.com on Wednesday when the Mumbai attacks began. Not only did the Mumbai story come in sixth place during an incredibly slow news week, the stupid Facebook story was emailed twice as many times (1,049 times, compared to 495).

The top-ranking emailed stories for the Times were an op-ed piece about why we should be angry about the Citibank bailout

The second most-emailed story was about an evangelical TV host who preached from a giant bed with a paisley cover

And then there was the fucked-up story about Black Friday shoppers trampling a Wal-Mart employee to death.

“When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning,’ ” Ms. Cribbs told The Associated Press. “They kept shopping.”

Because, c’mon, priorities! Speaking of priorities, this story ranked below a review of the new Blackberry, but above anything on Mumbai.

Why didn’t the Mumbai attacks merit more attention from us readers? The same reason there were profiles of Americans like the rabbi from Brooklyn and the Virginian father and daughter, and relatively nothing on the estimated 158 Indians killed (out of a total of about 180 fatalities) … because we’re constantly looking for ourselves in everything we consume, and Americans can’t identify with hand grenades and burning hotel rooms like we relate to internet stalking and Black Friday.