If you weren’t aware before, then you will be, starting now: Notorious Mexican drug lord El Chapo was recaptured. Clearly, he’s dangerous and deserves to be in jail. But here’s the question: Why in the world would you publicize the man’s entire life? He’s already a powerful billionaire; let’s not make him the center of attention.

The New York Times recently published an El Chapo interview that was conducted by Sean Penn. Why is this news? We all know El Chapo is one of the most dangerous drug lords in the world and that his “business” is international. The media-driven infatuation with this murderous Mexican mafioso is maniacal. It isn’t just about El Chapo, though. The excessive attention his story has received reflects a disturbing trend in mainstream news media today.

For instance, Kylie Jenner has just recently stopped being the center of attention. I’m happy to see that her 15 minutes of fame has been suspended, at least temporarily. Speculation as to the actual size of Jenner’s lips, or the twists and turns in her relationship with Tyga are, in my opinion, simply not newsworthy. The population of the United States does not need constant updates on such trivial bits of information.

Let’s not forget the comical mistake Steve Harvey made when he announced the wrong winner at the Miss Universe Pageant. Yes, it was funny, and we all had a good laugh, but did the AP, The New York Times, BBC and a plethora of other news sources need to publish multiple articles about it? Probably not. We should be focusing on more important things, such as the upcoming presidential election. Or on how North Korea just conducted their first successful hydrogen bomb test. Why are people turning away from reality and choosing to obsess over the most trivial, shallow aspects of society? Why not focus on things that will actually affect us, like how catastrophic it would be if Donald Trump won the presidential election? That guy wants to lead us into another World War and yet the media, and by extension the American masses, seem more interested in his feud with Rosie O’Donnell than his feeble-minded foreign policy plans.

We as a population need to be more on top of current events. We really need to stop being the laughing stock of the world. I feel like our collective IQ is slowly dropping from all the trivial things that today’s news outlets are publishing. How can we correct this? How can we as a population change our current situation? We can start by reorganizing our priorities. By demanding the media to report on news that is truly meaningful and that has tangible implications for our lives, we can compel them to cut out the mind-numbing, garbage content that they seem so fond of spoon-feeding us. We can’t keep living in a fictional world, shaped by the wily antics of psychopathic celebrities. Let’s face it; we need to make this change, not only for ourselves, but also for the future of humanity.

letters@chronicle.utah.edu

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