Larry King finally did it. After spending weeks sitting in his studio talking about the Elizabeth Smart case, he finally got his crinkly, multipley bypassed heart out to Utah to interview the few remaining members of the Smart family who haven't been interviewed by Ashleigh Banfield. She's there too. Remember her? Climbing to fame by being one of the first people on the scene of Ground Zero, dyeing her hair black and wearing scarves in an effort to fit in while reporting from Pakistan, then interviewing grieving Palestinians and Israeli's after every traumatic event, she was getting some cred by going from hot-spot to hot-spot. She's now in Utah too, covering the Elizabeth Smart thang. Guess with all that's going on in the world- encroaching invasion of Iraq, collapse of the American corporate system, the President and Vice-President being caught with the cookie from the cookie jar- the most important place to be is Utah. To follow the kidnapping of some blonde, rich white girl.

You know how much I care about the Smart case? Nothing. Nada. Couldn't give a shit.

Yeah, I feel bad for her and her family and yeah, it's a shame, but I just don't care. Didn't know her. Don't know her family. Don't know anyone who knew her. And whatever happened and will happen to her will have absolutely no impact on my life. Not one thing.

Know something too? Unless you know her, her family, or people who know them, her kidnapping doesn't mean anything to you either. Doesn't affect your life one bit either. Oh, you might feel more paranoid about things and think that would could happen to her might happen to you or your kids, but there's a really serious chances that it won't. Great chance it won't happen. In fact, statistically, most child abductions are done by people who know the child.

Yet, once again, the media is all in a froth on a story about a kidnapped girl. And yes, another white, rich girl (as opposed to say, a poor hispanic one). Because the media oh so loves a story about a kidnapped rich, white girl. And isn't it great timing that this happened too? The Jon Benet's story is way old and the Chandra Levy cases has probably run it's course, or will until they figure out what happened, so that left the press with nothing. Just boring stories about corporate crime, been there done it stories about the crisis in the Middle East, and way too boring science items about global warming. Booring. So bring on the kidnapped rich, white girl.

Remember after 9/11, we all sat around and talked about how we were about to go through a great awakening? How we were suddenly going to learn about things in the world and how the press would no longer get caught up in insignificant, overly sensationalized stories? How everyone pointed to the Chandra Levy thing as the absolute nadir of what was wrong with the media?

Guess not.