Why is O.J. on the News?

There are plenty of complaints about the fact that O.J. Simpson is all over the news.  Just like when Paris Hilton was all over the news earlier this summer.  Why are these no-good celebrities dominating the TV screen on nightly newscasts and all of the major papers?  Easy Answer: People who run news broadcasts respond to incentives.

Many people who watch the news, or read the newspaper, or who have blogs they update with nonsensical posts once every two weeks claim that this news is unimportant.  They claim the newspapers and newscasts should focus on important information like the war, politics, the environment, and other such topics.

But it’s very expensive to run a newspaper or a newscast.  Bills have to be paid.  The only way to do that is to find enough subscribers or viewers.  And to do that, you’ve got to give the people what they want.  Sure, there are plenty of intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals that want the “real” news and none of this celebrity news all over the front page.  But the average American news observer craves this celebrity, human-interest pseudo-news.  So the papers and the news broadcasts are going to keep feeding it to them.

I’m not saying this is the way the news should be, I’m just saying that it doesn’t make sense for the people who put out the news to ignore the fact that a large chunk of their audience craves this crap.  How else will they survive?

If you want to find a news source that just talks about the news, subscribe to a magazine like the Economist.  Otherwise, prepare to drink your O.J.