Cecil the lion has been shot! But you probably know that
unless you’ve been in a coma the last few days, as it has literally been front
page news every day since.
In yet
another example of our rapidly deteriorating ability to rationally prioritize, here are the three headlines/topics, top to
bottom, deemed worthy of front page, center, coverage for the Friday, July 31, edition
of the StarTribune. Top, above the fold, “U.S. to probe lion’s death.” (U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service officials admitted that the lion is not protected
under U.S. law, but said they share Zimbabwe’s interest in protecting
threatened animals. Animal-rights imperialism is here!).
Second,
just below the fold, “AMID WALLEYE CRISIS, OLD ENMITIES.” (Walleye “crisis”? Yes, one popular central Minnesota lake’s walleye population is down.
And yes, the headline was in all caps).
And at
bottom, “Vaccine for turkey flu could be announced within a week.” (The article
went on to bemoan the fact that the flu has wiped out about 10% of Minnesota’s
annual turkey production).
It
wasn’t until page three that the
paper got around to printing the story of authorities possibly finding parts of
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, and how the relatives of those 239 souls aboard
the plane have been in an agonizing limbo, as the A.P. article accurately
termed it, for the past 16 months
since the plane went missing.
The
article headlined, “War’s youngest victims,” was on page three as well, below
the one on Malaysian Flight 370, but this one only chronicled the 4 million refugees who’ve fled Syria’s
brutal civil war. Oh yeah, and the 10,000
children who have died in the
four-year old conflict.
I mean,
hello, it’s not like a lion was shot or anything.
Addendum: as of Saturday evening,
August 1st, there are ( amazingly poorly written, nearly incoherent)
news reports online stating that “Jericho,” Cecil’s brother, has been poached
as well. Or not, depending on which hysterical source one cares to believe, if
any. If true, this could push the world over the edge.
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