Saturday, April 10, 2021

Monopolizing The News

The Boston Globe published 16 pages of obituaries and death notices on Sunday, April 19.

 Anyone with a fetish for reading obituaries

will discover a gold mine of entertainment

in the newspapers of late with the number

of pages devoted to the dearly departed

bearing little resemblance to those of only

a year before. Anyone doubting that the 

novel coronavirus is a real pathogenic threat

to the survival of those vulnerable to its

predations need only explain to themselves

where all these 'excess death' memorials

emanate from. The newspapers print fewer and

fewer pages of news, and what is published

is monopolized by global news of the chaos

wrought by SARS-CoV-2, its mutations and

rising levels of contagion and lethality for there

is scant room available for news reports on any

other events barring volcanic eruptions, regional

conflicts and a royal approaching his 100th year

succumbing to the weariness of life as an amoeba.

COVID-19 is news; all else mere commentary.

 


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