Troop Surge Causes Return of O.J. Frenzie

Posted by ZZ Bachman...

Former American football star OJ Simpson was arrested Sunday by Las Vegas police in connection with an alleged armed robbery in a casino hotel room. He was booked on suspicion of one count of robbery with a deadly weapon. Las Vegas authorities were expected to hold a press conference Sunday evening to discuss the case including Simpson’s arrest. Get ready to strap on your 24×7 media coverage seatbelt.

A report and analysis of the impact on Capitol Hill from Scott Ott….

(2007-09-16) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, today blamed the so-called “success” of President George Bush’s military surge in Iraq for the sudden return of O.J. Simpson to the national news stage.“Today we lay yet another tragedy at the White House doorstep,” Sen. Reid said. “For weeks, perhaps months, to come Americans will be mired in round-the-clock coverage of Mr. Simpson’s plight because — and only because — U.S. troops are not pulling out of Iraq immediately.”

Mr. Reid explained that if the surge had failed as expected, news cameras and reporters would be deployed to airbases right now to record the return of U.S. troops from Iraq, relegating Mr. Simpson’s legal trauma to the tabloids.

“But instead of memorable images of humbled American troops disembarking from aircraft,” he said, “our troops are stuck in Iraq, and we’re stuck with O.J. at the top of the hour and above the fold.” — [Hat Tip: Scott Ott/ScrappleFace]

Now, thanks to new media and the 24-hour news cycle, a certain class of story has come to share that material immortality. It’s no longer possible to say how they first appeared in the media universe, and it’s clear that — however attenuated or grotesque their transformation — they’re simply going to live on forever. Anything touching on the late Anna Nicole Smith or the inexplicable Paris Hilton falls into that category and so, too, do all things. . . O.J.

“Simpson” the story — as opposed to O.J. Simpson the person — stands, in fact, as a kind of founding event in the establishment of the 24-hour news cycle, an event whose significance was established and grew not because of its intrinsic importance, but because news organizations with 24 hours of airtime and newsprint to fill chose to fill their empty minutes and columns with O.J. Now the 24-hour news cycle has to involve a lot more than news; there are hours of analysis and “expert opinion” and features and speculation and comment of every sort. Who, after all, could stomach around-the-clock facts?

Posted by ZZ Bachman...

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