Is the Sunday paper here? I need to clean the birdcage.

The philosophy of "out of sight, out of mind" is just another way we fool ourselves that things aren't important. Pull up the sofa cushions and I bet a river of memories come flooding back based on the food, receipts and ear rings you find stashed there. Memories that, once the visual stimulus is gone, are pushed to the deep abyss of one's mind like the dust devils we sweep under the carpet just before company arrives.

As a society, we've declared the remembrance of certain events sacrosanct. For years the media, tenders of our collective memory, have seen fit to remind us of these events with the subtlety of a hooker approaching a conventioneer in a Las Vegas nightclub. Headlines serve as flashcards of constant learning for the most important of events. Earth Day, Saint Patrick's Day, New Year's and soon Obama Day will never be forgotten because the media will jog our memory away from the mundane news of Britney, Paris and O.J. back to what is meaningful.

The media swung a broadsword in their unabashed push for The One this past election cycle. It is easy to see what they deem important. It is also easy to see what they don't.



Today should be a day of remembrance. In 1941, 2403 soldiers and innocents died in the dawn raid at Pearl Harbor. Until the 2001 attack on September 11th this was the single largest death toll of any attack on our shores. The blue waters of Hawaii cover the evidence of this tragedy more effectively than a black outfit hides rolls of fat for Oprah when she is off her diet.

I took a look at the web sites for the top 15 newspapers in the United States according to circulation. These include the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning New and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Not a single one had a major headline regarding Pearl Harbor and only the USA Today and Wall Street Journal had any mention at all about the attacks on their home pages. I did learn that Chickens do more than cross the road and read a discussion about who should perform at the inauguration in the LA Times and Atlanta Journal Constitution respectfully. I think Barbara Streisand ought to come out of retirement yet again to perform. The DC police are worried about crowd control and I am sure she will help clear the streets.

Last September the headlines regarding the attacks by Islamic Terrorists in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania received less coverage than the year before. The footage of the planes hitting the World Trade Center ought to be mandatory viewing once a month but there is an unwritten agreement to avoid discussing it the same way Carmella Soprano refused to discuss Tony's late night business meetings. Our nation has the memory of an Alzheimer patient and the media is nurse Ratchet handing out placebos.

Is it any wonder every newspaper in the country is seeing huge declines in readership? With the power to influence comes the great responsibility to wield this power as a pen of unbiased reporting and not a sword of political and social desire.

The Chicago Tribune announced this weekend they have hired a bankruptcy attorney. Maybe if they, and the other print media, would spend less time trying to influence us and more time reporting so we could make up our own minds they wouldn't be experiencing the loss in readership they are.

Do me a favor, keep reminding everyone of what is important to remember.