As I click on my Yahoo homepage, that tempting headline jumps out at me, right next to the yawner "Elderly Haiti Quake Survivors Wait to Die."***
Yahoo is daring its millions of readers to satisfy their morbid curiosity by clicking on this tab. The obvious followup springs to mind: "Drive-by Shooting Adventure Ride opens at Disneyland: Johnny Depp to star in blackface role."
Running to the moral high ground, I declaim, "Isn't it bad enough to tease TV viewers with 'Six die in horrible crash--pictures at eleven.' How can the cynical media bank on tragedy as their rainmaker?"
Maybe the truth of our behavior lies in the immortal words of the J.Geils band.
My blood runs cold
My memory has just been sold
My angel is the centerfold
Angel is the centerfold
A part of me has just been ripped
The pages from my mind are stripped
Oh no, I can't deny it
Oh yea, I guess I gotta buy it!
Click.
***Donations for the elderly Haitians may be made at http://www.aarp.org/
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