by Kent Ninomiya A 5.4 magnitude earthquake shakes the Midwest and you would think the Earth opened up and swallowed it whole. First of all, a 5.4 isn't that big. Yes, you can feel it and it might knock a few books off the shelf, but there were no deaths, injuries or damage of any consequence. That didn't stop local and national media from screaming that the sky was falling. There was wall to wall live coverage and non stop interviews of people saying it woke them up and they felt it. So... Read Full Story
Kent Ninomiya - America's obsession with celebrity is proving to surpass the entire justification for celebrity in the first place. The news is filled with stories about Britney Spears and her personal troubles as well as her sister's teen pregnancy. The only justification for doing these stories is that they are famous. Their troubles are no different than troubles facing American families everywhere yet their troubles are front page news. Brittany became famous as an entertainer yet she... Read Full Story
Kent Ninomiya - Well, I told you so. The top 10 of 2007 lists are pouring out. They are proving that journalists are as revisionist as everyone else. We tend to remember things as we want to remember them not as they actually are. When asked what the top stories of this year were we'll tell you the meaty hard news stories. But what did we really cover? Will we remember or admit that we spent our time and energy chasing down stories on Paris Hilton, Brittany Spears, Jamie Lynn Spears, and Anna... Read Full Story
Kent Ninomiya - The modern day equivalent of a lynch mob is sweeping the Internet. Instead of wielding pitchforks and torches, they brandish mouses and motherboards. Take the case of a 21-year-old junior at Portland, Oregon's Lewis & Clark University. A 19-year-old former girlfriend contacted him one night resulting in an invitation to come to his room. She went there willingly. Both admit to drinking and say the visit turned sexual. What happened after that is unclear, but days later the... Read Full Story
Kent Ninomiya - The media is making a big deal about Chelsea Clinton refusing to grant an interview to a 9 year old girl. I find this completely irresponsible. Chelsea Clinton is not running for President. She has every right to refuse interviews. In fact she never gives interviews and makes that clear to everyone. Granting an interview to this girl would only invite more requests. None of us know what it is like to have a father who was president and a mother running for president. None of... Read Full Story
Kent Ninomiya - We are in the midst of an era of hypersensitivity over slips of the tongue and cultural issues. First there was the suspension of Kelly Tilghman for joking that Tiger Woods should be "lynched." Then it was ESPN's Dana Jacobson suspended for comments about Notre Dame and Jesus at a roast. Now it's CNN's Kyra Phillips coming under fire. She was in a discussion with Gerri Willis and co-anchor. Willis joked that if she could predict the stock market, she and Phillips could run off... Read Full Story
Kent Ninomiya - If you watched TV or read a newspaper in the past week, you might be under the impression that we are no longer at war, the economy is no longer in a downward spiral and gasoline prices are no longer hitting all time highs. It would seem that the sexual habits of New York's governor, an off hand racial comment by a former vice presidential candidate to a small newspaper, and sermons by a pastor who knows a presidential candidate are the most pressing issues facing our nation... Read Full Story
Kent Ninomiya - Miss America is now a reality series. That's right. The 87 year old standard by which all beauty pageants are judged has gone reality. From what I observe it's got the same format of every other reality series on TV. There are 52 contestants (one for each state plus Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands). They stand before a panel of unworthy judges who belittle and degrade them constantly. These once elegant women are reduced to performing "challenges" to prove their... Read Full Story
Kent Ninomiya. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is predictably throwing Afghanistan into turmoil and further destabilizing West Asia. What was not so predictable is the relative apathy demonstrated by network news organizations. None of the big three network news anchors bothered to return from their vacations to cover the assassination and fallout much less travel to the region to field anchor. I can only imagine that they concluded it just wasn't important enough to the American audience... Read Full Story
Kent Ninomiya - What is an innocent man supposed to sound like? Do we know? If I asked what a guilty man sounds like I'm sure I would get all sorts of answers, but an innocent man is harder to identify. This is the no win situation facing Roger Clemens. No matter what he does he will look and sound guilty to many just because he was accused. This is the gross injustice inflicted by our media culture. While the courts are supposed to assume innocence until guilt is proven, it is the opposite... Read Full Story
