A Moment of Perspective

Ahmadinejad and his loyal mullahs are busy cracking down against the opposition, and the world's focus is not on the brutality of the regime, but instead on the death of Michael Jackson.

In fact, Jackson's death may have accomplished something that even Iran's Ahmadinejad could have only dreamed of - it reduced Twitter to a trickle.

Twitter crashed as users saw multiple "fail whales" -- the illustrations the site uses as error messages -- user FoieGrasie posting, "Irony: The protesters in Iran using twitter as com are unable to get online because of all the posts of 'Michael Jackson RIP.' Well done." The site's status blog said that Twitter had had to temporarily disable its search results, saved searches and trend topics.

Outstanding! A music legend dies, and it nearly takes down one of the key communications efforts by the opposition to the Islamofascists in Tehran because everyone was rushing to say RIP to Michael Jackson. If only so many people cared for the millions at risk of subjugation in Iran today.

Instead, the media is devoting nearly all of the above the fold coverage to Jackson's death. It's a frakking circus, but I guess the public loves a circus.

They're getting one.

Keep in mind what else should otherwise be above the fold for news coverage because of its importance going forward. Jackson's death happened just as the House is set to vote on the cap and trade tax that will sap the US economy for years to come, and is preparing a health makeover that will undermine the delivery of health care for generations to come. After all, if the government can't even deliver on existing promises of health care to US veterans, why should anyone else think that they'll deliver quality care to everyone else?

The media thinks that Jackson's death will sell papers and move magazines off moribund store shelves, and they're probably right. Of course, the same media which claims that they're supposed to be printing all the news that fits is underplaying the important votes set to take place in Congress that will hike the costs of goods and services for years to come via the cap and trade tax hike.