May I swear and rant??

Of course I may, it's my blog. Warning, liberal use of profanity ahead.

The tragic accident in Union County, FL has hit the national media. I don't have the energy to link to it, but if you need a link, say so. The synopsis: A school bus stopped. A car with a bunch of kids in it stopped behind it. A truck slammed into the rear of the car, shoving it into the bus, causing a fire that killed everybody in the car and injured kids on the bus.

And the national media's take on it? "The driver of the car, who only had a learner's permit and was driving illegally...."

This sets me off, because it is, on a small, single accident level, what is wrong with the walking blobs of hairspray who convey the events of the world to us, the hapless recipients of their "news."

The girl's driving status was irrelevant. She was doing the legal, correct thing, stopped behind a school bus, when A BIG FUCKING TRUCK SLAMMED INTO HER CAR AND KILLED HER AND ALL HER SIBLINGS AND COUSINS.

This accident took place in a rural county. As those of you from rural places can attest, kids start driving early in the country. It's not like the Big City, where the Reporters come from, where cops are ready to pull you over for no excuse at all. And this child's driving experience or licensure status IS NOT THE ISSUE. She could have had 6 adult passengers, in which case her learner's permit status would have been totally legal, it would have happened the same way. She could have been in the car with her driver's ed teacher, it would have happened the same way. Her license status is an irrelevancy, but it is IN EVERY FUCKING WIRE STORY. "She was driving illegally...." Yeah, and maybe she was wearing mismatched socks or didn't eat all of her lunch, who gives a fuck because IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CHAIN OF EVENTS.

Why am I pissed? Not just for her parents, who have to see and hear and read this bullshit irrelevancy over and over, as if the tilt is to blame their dead daughter for being in the car that WAS HIT BY THE BIG TRUCK WHILE LEGALLY STOPPED BEHIND A SCHOOL BUS. I can barely imagine the agony they are in right now, and this idiotic distortion of the accident by EVERY MAJOR NEWS SERVICE is too trivial for them to think about right now.

I'm ranting about this because it is, in a microcosm, what is going on with the Abramhoff story, the wiretap story, the Medicare story, every other thing going on in this country. The walking bags of hairspray have a storyline in their little one dimensional brains. A few days ago, before this terrible accident happened, I had the morning newsbabble on while I was getting ready for work, and one of the topics they were flogging was Young Drivers and The Risks. So when this accident happened, even though the accident had Exactly Jack Shit to do with the status of the girl behind the wheel and everything to do with the truck that HIT HER, it became part of the Ongoing Story. The Young Drivers. I saw the story a bit ago on, maybe it was Today? Citing the statistics about kids who carry passengers are way more likely to get into accidents. So that was the crossover, the bridge, the link to the Theme of the Week, for these useless pancake makeup transport systems we call reporters. They had a hook, and it has gone national. Even though it was not at all a factor in this accident.

So, if her mother, who looks 40ish, had been in the car? Then her driving status would have been totally legal, and it wouldn't have made any difference, because her mother would be dead too, because everybody in the car died. Right now she probably wishes she'd been there too. But the presence of an adult in the car was NOT AN ISSUE. NOT. AN. ISSUE. I'm sickened that the media idiocy is adding pain to parents who are already tortured by "what if." And hearing their daughter described as "driving illegally" when she was stopped behind the goddamn bus like a good driver and not at all at fault in this accident. Guilt by media prattle. It's sickening.

If these useless creatures can't even read the facts and shut up about it, there is no fucking chance that they will ever, ever, be able to report on wiretapping and FISA and Abramoff and all the other shit. They are not about reporting news, they are there to tell stories. And they tell the stories they know. Teenage Drivers Are Bad was a theme this month, so it's the slant of the coverage of this tragedy. The teenage driver behind the wheel was not at fault in any way. Let's see how long it takes for the facts to reach the national media.