Media Covering Myspace; Afraid to Cover Real News

By Alicia Dorr in Miscellaneous on Apr 11, 2006 4:15PM

If there's one thing we can't stand hearing any more about lately—aside from Katie Couric—it's Myspace.

Sure, at least a couple of us at Chicagoist have been known to dabble in the networking site, if for no other reason than we are always looking for a good diversion tactic. But whether it's our favorite or we hate it, we just can't stand to hear any more news about the stupid website. Why are we talking about it now then? Good question.

Moving right along with our bitching about being sick of Myspace coverage, major news networks just can't seem to get enough of this story—parents who fear for their children's lives on Myspace. The cherry on the cake was the L.A. Times piece that ran in the Trib today. We hate it that a mom rambling on for thousands of words about how she's sad her daughter is growing up becomes news.

So, okay, we get it—you're worried about your kid putting their personal info out into the sccccaaarry Internet where you can't control it (good luck being upset with your kid being out of your control, by the way), but that's actually the major point of contention here. For example, doesn't anybody remember when chat rooms existed? Allow us to rephrase: Doesn't anybody remember when chat rooms still exist? It's not like kids being on the Internet mingling with who knows what is big news. In fact, it's exceptionally NOT new.

As these Myspace stories continue to eat up entire chunks of the news day, we can't help but point out that the site, which until younger teens started in with it recently was really a place where hipsters went to look at each other, is owned by Rupert Murdoch.

And that's just the first problem that the increasing popularity of the site has brought—the same "worried" parents and concerned citizens yapping on about children's safety are expelling students for making fun of Bush and being gay. So, wait ... What are they worried about again?