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Topic: Important News: Heath Ledger's death!
| Author | Message |
| frielpaco | Posted – 1/23/2008 10:38:04 AM | show profile Can somebody please tell me how this amounts to national news? This is just what Karl Rove wants you to cover and wants the American people to talk about. Because then, we aren?t focusing on the 655,000+ innocent deaths of Iraqi men, women, and childen. Because then, we aren?t focusing on the 3,931 deaths of innocent American troops. Because then, we aren?t focusing on the president lying about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to get us into a war for nothing but oil and big company contract profits. We aren?t focusing on the issues that really affect us because were distracted. And thats just the way George Bush would have it. |
| Baile | Posted – 1/23/2008 11:14:46 AM | show profile How right - see correct- you are! This and all the other "celebrity" news that clogs the airways. Most of what passes for news and indeed "political discussion" is mere distraction from the God awful stuff that is happening in our world. George Orwell's nightmare is alive and well in our time. Tragic, tragic. We are such sheep. |
| noname1234 | Posted – 1/23/2008 11:37:25 AM | show profile I'm not sure about this . While of course celebrity news is generally frivolous, etc., I also don't think that these 24-hour news stations (plus websites, radio stations, etc.) can fill all day, every day, with tallies of war casualities and atrocities, and what would be accomplished by doing so. The sudden death of a famous actor in his 20s is a reasonably legitimate news story. |
| wineaux | Posted – 1/23/2008 12:05:34 PM | show profile I think noname is on target. It is legitamate news. And, I don't think it means that the deaths of Iraqis or American soldiers are less important, wither. Curiously, I think we are at the threshold of a much deeper story here than a young actor dying. If he died from an accidental overdose (as they are saying), one has to look at the huge amounts of people that are having complications and death from addiction to medications or improper adminitstration. Or, if it's suicide, one has to wonder if he was so hooked on said drugs that he saw no way out. The over-medicating of America is a pretty serious and multi-faceted issue, and a poster child like a handsome actor, cut short in his prime will really put things more into focus for Joe Sixpack. Sadly, it seems like the average American cares more when things happen to celebrities than when their neighbor, friend or loved one is going through it. So, maybe his death could be a wakeup call to others. No matter how you look at it, it is a sad situation. A talented actor dying alone, leaving behind a young daughter and a family who loved him. That is newsworthy and doesn't deflect from all of the other horrible shit going on all over the world. |
| jazzreport | Posted – 1/23/2008 1:47:52 PM | show profile 655,000+ innocent deaths of Iraqi men, women, and childen.??? That came from a Soros funded study.Nothing more than liberal propaganda... Yes !!! Bussshhhhhhhhhhh and Rove are evilllllll!!!!!!!!!!! Bush flew a helicopter into New Orleans dropped Rove near the levees .Rove than planted explosives which blew up the levees killing thousands of Democrat voters. Bush doesn't care about black people!!!!! Rove started the fires in California in a attempt to kill or force Democrat voters out of their districts. Bush doesn't care about white liberals!!!!!! Bush and Rove went to war in Iraqi!!! Bush lied people died!!! Don't forget the evillllll Fox Noise Channel!!!!!!! They led us to war!!!!!! Rove's master plan made Halliburton billions of dollars!!!! George Soros and Michael Moore have made millions off their Halliburton stocks!!!!!!!!! Thank you Karl Rove!!!!!!! Now Rove has killed Heath Ledger !!!!!! Got to get people's minds off the Iraqi war and Halliburton!!!!! According to the Huff Post ,Halliburton is going to kill Barack Hussein Obama, Jr........ Who needs Jack Bauer when you have Karl Rove!!!!! |
| keltoi2 | Posted – 1/23/2008 3:27:31 PM | show profile Take a valium, whydo. Frank, Frank, Frank. Are all you rightwingers in such terror over a 77 year old Hungarian with money that he's your all-purpose bogeyman? So it's only OK if all the billionaires are right wing, right? As for the Lancet study, it's methodology was a helluvalot more stringent than, say, the Bush Administration's propaganda or the military's not bothering to count at all (they're only Iraqis, after all). The "consensus" on deaths in Iraq is a lot higher than "1/10th" the Lancet estimate. That's the BushCo and military "consensus". No bias risk there, eh? 2006 and 2007 alone tallied up more than that, and that doesn't count the initial invasion or first 3 years. The UN just released a report estimating 150,000, and other estimates go higher than that. But for the sake of argument, let's say 150,000 Iraqi civilians died because of the invasion. That is FIFTY 9/11s. FIFTY. And when you factor in the fact that Iraq's population is one-tenth that of the US, it's the equivalent of 1,500,000 American deaths. Everyone has seen what the loss of 3,000 Americans has done to our country. Try multiplying that loss by a factor of 500, and get a glimpse of what the Iraqis are enduring. |
| Iron Eagle | Posted – 1/23/2008 3:40:12 PM | show profile From a new study: "The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both. "It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaida," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003." I hope these clowns choke on these facts! |
| jazzreport | Posted – 1/23/2008 3:53:30 PM | show profile Lied 935 times???? More liberal propaganda http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/01/23/ap-bush-lied-study-not-revealed-funded-george-soros Another Soros funded hit job..AP and the NYTimes fail to mention the partisan financial backers of this study. |
| mentat | Posted – 1/23/2008 7:05:36 PM | show profile News Isn't a Zero-Sum Game We're capable of paying attention to a vast array of issues, from war to politics to health to the economy to the arts and entertainment. No one is equating Heath Ledger with the Iraq war in importance--but the story does have deep meaning to a great many people, and touches us on an emotional level. Yes, much of celebrity gossip is ghastly crap, but this is not gossip. Brain studies have shown that one's emtional reaction to celebrities can be every bit as real as those we feel for the actual people in our lives--through the miracle of technology, some of these people have truly touched us in a meaningful way. Not to mention through their art. There is real mourning taking place on an mass level, and the public deserves coverage of this painful event in order to come to terms with it in whatever way they need to on a personal level. We're not talking about Paris Hilton feeding her dog here. A great artist has died. That deserves coverage, even if his art did take place in the context of the dreaded Hollywood machine. If you're complaining about the AMOUNT of coverage--well, that has more to do with the general increase in media coverage of EVERYTHING in general. That's the forward march of technological history. If you're sick of the story, turn off the appliances and do something else. |
| keltoi2 | Posted – 1/23/2008 7:14:50 PM | show profile Mentat, that was a calm, rational, well-reasoned posting. You're obviously in the wrong section of this BB. |
| Iron Eagle | Posted – 1/23/2008 7:57:02 PM | show profile The UN study 150,000 seems to be the most reliable estimate. That's a hell of a lot of death - mostly civilians. |
| keltoi | Posted – 1/23/2008 10:27:24 PM | show profile Zzzzz.... Sorry, Frank, I'm unclear which evil, sadistic, psycho Saddam we're talking about. Is this the same evil, sadistic, psycho Saddam that Donald Rumsfeld shook hands with back in the '80s as an emissary for Ronald Reagan? The same evil, sadistic, psycho Saddam who the Reagan Administration greenlighted the sales of hundreds of millions of dollars of military hardware and ingredients for weapons of mass destruction? Oh--THAT Saddam. Yes, he was bad. And if we're busy invading countries that ignore UN mandates, than Israel better watch out, because it's ignored a basketload of UN mandates over the years. |
| keltoi | Posted – 1/24/2008 1:23:58 AM | show profile Problem was, Frank, Saddam didn't have them thar WMDs after all. Nope; hardly a thimbleful. Seems those "librul appeasers" at the UN cleaned Saddam out in the 1990s just like they said they did. But George didn't want to wait to hear it officially, so he just went crashing in and opened up that Pandora's Box that will waste our military might and our taxpayer dollars for years to come. Meanwhile, the REAL guilty parties have been having a field day thanks to Boy George's Big Adventure. Osama's still relaxing somewhere in west Pakistan, and our good ally says it ain't even looking for him. Our other good ally, Saudi Arabia, who produced 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers (there was not one Iraqi, by the way) and still supplies the Wahhabist brand of religious fanaticism that feeds the growing terrorist threat that George's war has brought, blows George off when he comes hat in hand asking them to turn up the oil spigot. Of course, oil was about $25 a barrel and $1.42 a gallon when George came into office, compared with the $98 a barrel and $3.20 a gallon it's been lately. Great news for George's Saudi and other oil buddies. Not so good for the rest of us. Yep, you right-winger folks have made a pretty fine mess of the world. |
| frielpaco | Posted – 1/24/2008 6:44:35 AM | show profile The kind of thing that makes me go hmmm... So first there was Daniel Smith, then there was Anna Nicole Smith, now theres Heath Ledger. All drug deaths... every salacious detail brodcasted gavel to gavel on tragedy TV... all knocking the important stories off the news... all knocking off the important stories that republicans don't want you to hear about off the news like the Iraqi and American troop casualty death numbers. I see two possiblities. Either A. These are all drug deaths and Americans should be horrified each time they take a prescription or over the counter medication or B. the republicans have the best luck in the world for all these stories to happen at the perfect time to knock off whatever key issue of the moment they don't want on the news (i.e. Iraq war casualties (every tabloid stories for the last 5 years), Katrina (Natalee Holloway), ression (this case/Maria Lauterbach), Michigan rules warentless wiretaps illegal (John Mark Karr/Homeland Security adventure), CIA leak case (Daniel Smith), Alberto Gonzalez (VA Tech), build up to Iraq war (Laci Peterson missing), 2004 election fraud (Scott Peterson verdict watch), Iraq war gets horrible (Duke rape case), etc., etc., etc.) I follow all this garbage for a reason... I want to see what it is distracting us from. Its quite interesting if you look at that way. All I can say, is don't fall for it. Turn it off. The next time the U.S. depatment of Homeland Security goes to Thailand to arrest John Mark Karr for the murder of JonBenet Ramsey and bad news has just happened for the Bush administration and then the confession that everybody thought was finally justice falls through... be suspicious. |
| frielpaco | Posted – 1/24/2008 11:04:03 AM | show profile Out of all the examples I listed, its interesting that one stood out to you. I don't care if it was overturned. The reality is the night the story broke, the media should of been all over it... but they weren't... because all the sudden there was this huge breaking news from tragedy TV about a break in the Ramsey case. Turns out that you only had to stay up late and watch CNN to see Ann Hurst of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security holding a press confrence saying that John Mark Karr was arrested for the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. Since when did the U.S. Department of Homeland Security get involved in a Colorado homicide? Since George W. Bush took office, thats when. |
| soulman | Posted – 1/24/2008 11:22:44 AM | show profile Because Of Brokeback Mountain The only reason the media is covering Heath Ledger's death 24/7 is because he starred in the movie Brokeback Mountain. He is a huge hero and symbol for gay Americans, even though he was not gay himself. If Heath had never appeared in that movie, you would see a lot less coverage of his tragic death. Hollywood celebrities are always getting themselves hooked on pills, mainly because they have the money to pay for those expensive prescriptions. Having a lot of money would be nice, but it has a serious downside as well, and that is the fact that you can buy yourself into a lot of trouble if you are prone to that sort of thing. |
| frielpaco | Posted – 1/24/2008 11:26:29 AM | show profile No, the media is covering Heath Ledger's death because it keeps all the bad news about Bush and their republican cronie friends out of the news. |
| noname1234 | Posted – 1/24/2008 11:27:13 AM | show profile soulman, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. He was a sort of teen idol before he ever starred in brokeback mountain, and his role in brokeback mountain garnerned him huge acclaim from critics and knowledgeable movie fans. Also, here in NYC, he's been a regular feature in the gossip pages, as a local resident often seen out and about. |
| jazzreport | Posted – 1/24/2008 11:34:08 AM | show profile That was all over the media.Did you watch MSNBC ,CNN,and CBS??? |
| frielpaco | Posted – 1/24/2008 11:53:08 AM | show profile Funny how the thing I mentioned about the JonBenet Ramsey case and U.S. Department of Homeland Security was sidetracked so quickly. Guess its true, wether in the news or on a message board... republicans secret technique is distraction. |
| instylegirl | Posted – 1/30/2008 12:07:12 AM | show profile Frielpaco please explain to me ... How you can portray yourself as such a passionate concerned person, when in the same breathe you say something so heartless. I am not a fan of Heath Ledger, and am not sure I have ever seen one of his films, but one thing I know for sure is there is a very hurt and distraught family on the other side of the world, who like the family of fallen soldiers, are stricken with grief. Now regardless of who he is or how he died, it is a tragedy when someone so very young dies, and there are those left behind with questions, let's not forget the young child who will never know her father. I completely share your sentiment with this war situation, but please do not downplay another's death and the media attention behind it to justify your point. Death in any circumstance should never be down played. And, who knows, maybe revelations in this case will be made that can help others. |
