What is news-worthy?

When an American citizen commits suicide by self-immolation, a death so slow and agonizing that fewer than ten suicides by this method have ever been recorded in the U.S., in the middle of rush hour on a famous public sculpture in the busy downtown of one of the most populous American cities to protest the most controversial war in which the country has ever been involved only days before the most important midterm election in over a century, shouldn't it make the news?

When Malachi Ritscher burned himself alive on a public works sculpture in a crowded Chicago square on the Friday before the election to protest the U.S.'s involvement in the war in Iraq, not one major news service outside of Chicago covered it. I only found out because of Pitchfork's feature article this morning. If he wasn't prominently involved in Chicago's music scene, they wouldn't have covered it.

When an insignificant celebrity files for dissolution of a brief marriage to an even less significant public figure on the day of any national election, shouldn't it be a mere footnote in the day's news cycle, at the very most?

When Britney Spears filed for divorce from her former backup dancer after two years of marriage on the day of the most important midterm election of my lifetime, it was breaking news on every major television network and news service, overshadowing all of the election-related news that had been reported up to that time.

More evidence that we are living in a society gone mad.

The saddest part of all this is that Ritscher intended to draw attention to the injustice of this war by killing himself in the most spectacular way possible, but he severely overestimated America's capacity to give a flying fuck about anyone who hasn't been on MTV.

America's priorities are fucked up, to say the least.