I wonder how much money is being spent on the congressional hearing into Roger Clemen's HGH use? What "good" is going to come of it? What does it say about a nation, that this morning, this is the only story being covered by the major media outlets.
There are people dying of starvation, some right in the USA and Canada, there is homelessness, there is genocide taking place somewhere in the world today, and we are focused on a baseball player's use of HGH.
When it is all said and done, I wonder what a difference that money could have made in a poor neighborhood?....
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Even without questioning what the money could have done in the neighbourhood, what could we individually do in our neighbourhood if we weren't ingrained with the "celebrity worship" as a society?
Without that, there would be no need for a congressional hearing on Roger Clemens' steroid use. The national media wouldn't bother reporting on it.
While I don't disagree with the commentary on Clemens, I wonder if perhaps it's a little... let's say hypocritical since I can't think of a better word. I'll explain. What difference is there between the money wasted on investigating Clemens and that wasted on American football? Couldn't the money for players' salaries, advertising dollars during the superbowl, etc be better spent on the needy? How about that $39.99 for a UFC fight? Or forget that, (if you're like me) the $100+ for cable itself!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm an angel or betterthanthou; I could be doing more myself. I just think it's unfair to attack the coverage of this investigation when you (and I) consume similar forms of entertainment.
Pat.
You make a valid point, Pat. And I completely agree that most events are grossly overpriced - whether a ticket to a live venue or via pay-per-view - but it's somewhat circular. If we as a public weren't interested, the advertisers wouldn't pay, the tickets wouldn't be bought, the event wouldn't happen and the players [or artists] wouldn't get paid. Some of them might then be the needy in our communities...
The question then becomes what can we do about the whole scenario and how should we change our daily/monthly spending?
I think that a discussion about overpaid athletes and The US government wasting tax payers money are two different conversations. The government is responsible for social welfare and says it has to make cutbacks in social services and then spends millions on whether a retired baseball player used a banned substance.
Pat if we use your argument of comparing my $50.00 to the governments waste, then nothing will ever change. I spend $50.00 on UFC, but how much do is give for the poor? I never judge what an individual does with their money because I don't see the whole picture,... unless they are always claiming to be broke but spend stupidly. However, the government is supposed to be an open book.
Ah, missed the point of your post. When you mentioned the media I started thinking "entertainment", hence the tie in to professional sports.
As for government responsibility, well, surely you can recognize that the government isn't always an open book. In Canada we have that whole sponsorship scandal that lost the Liberals their federal seats. How long was it before anyone owned up to that? Or how about the numerous scandals that have rocked Bush's party? The Bush camp has to this day have barely acknowledged the outright lies that brought them to Iraq. Also, the U.S. government seems to have an (imo unnatural) interest in matters pertaining to illicit drugs. Even a cursory look at the federal drug policy will lead someone to think that the powers at be have an ulterior motive for the laws on drugs. You wanna talk waste? The U.S. drug laws are mind boggling in the wasted dollars they produce!
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