The News is Bad All Over America

Local news is what it is, and what it is is terrible. The city of Chicago, more than three million people, still receives a nightly news program that trades more in human interst stories than actual events. Granted, the news from around the globe is bad, but the human interest stories are equally maudlin--they're usually about terminally-ill children (no mention of exactly how little Jimmy got leukemia--could it be that plastics factory next to his Mommy's trailer? Hush, you fool! Talk about the teddy bear that a local fireman brought him!), the victims of outrageous fraud ("I thought it was a genuine offer...I mean, who wouldn't take advantage of a 3-for-1 hip replacement surgery??"), and people who died and had some really, really slim connection to the region.

It's this last one that needs further exploration. Just like in Charlotte, Virginia Beach, Gatlinburg, and other supposedly slow news towns, people in Chicago seem to eat up this shit about the guy who died in a freak accident yesterday who once rented an apartment in Skokie for three months. That's the whole story. Man lived here, briefly. Now he's dead. More at 11.

This was on TV this morning:
"Today Chicago remembers Brian Ettleson, who once had a forty-five minute layover at O'Hare Airport but is now passed away. Mr Ettleson died Monday at his home in Broward County, Florida, where he has lived his entire life. He contracted a rare skin disease while spearfishing off the Florida Keys and died before ever returning to Chicago. People at O'Hare who say they remember Ettleson recall that he was a quiet man who liked to do crossword puzzles and patronized the newstands here in the terminal while waiting patiently for his flight back home. He will be missed. No word yet on funeral arrangements. Back to you, Robin."

Better informed now, are we?