Breaking News

“You don’t know what you don’t know,” the commentator says, and then analyzes the daily topics ad infinitum based on perception, innuendo, speculation, and pure ratings grab.

The list of what we don’t know is lengthy, including the Jessie Davis/Bobby Cutts situation; the Chris Benoit homicides; the details of the doctor’s involvement and arrest; the intimate details of Paris’s attempt to escape the media by fleeing to the Aloha State; the identification of the hunk allegedly sharing ocean with her; the contents of Britney’s hand-delivered correspondence to her mother; the legal basis behind the Libby sentence commutation and the ramifications for that action within the Republican party, its effects on the conservative movement, and the potential damage to the 2008 elections; nor how well the lobster pleased the palettes at the Lobster Summit with President Putin.

Because we don’t know jack, why do the newsreaders prattle on ad nauseum, sharing what are called the “details” of all of the stories they are purportedly reporting to the public?

If the situation in Britain were to develop in the US, the paparazzi would be there before the police, pushing and shoving to get the money shot! The key suspects would be able to avoid detection just by watching network coverage of police activity. And if there were any doubt about vulnerable targets of opportunity for terrorists, the networks would gleefully share those with the public and set up 24-hour surveillance just to be there when it happens.

In Britain, there is no on-site coverage of law enforcement personnel setting up command centers, positioning snipers on the roof tops, running the suspects to ground, or escorting the perp on the walk into the jail facility; instead, there is a news release each time another individual is arrested. Police business remains police business, not a media event.

My vote goes to the British: don’t say anything, an approach perhaps based on the Mark Twainian philosophy that it’s better to say nothing and be thought a fool than it is to open one’s mouth and confirm it.