THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 31, 1995 TAG: 9512290009
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines
Extra, extra, read all about it!
``ALL THINGS O.J.'' TOPS READER SURVEY OF TOP 10 JUNK-FOOD NEWS STORIES!!!
Wow, what a surprise . . . can't we just nominate O.J. Simpson for the Junk News Hall of Fame and get on with it?
Earlier this month, I asked you, our readers, to pick the most over-covered news stories of 1995. They're the stories you found again. . . and again. . . and again in newspapers, on TV or in your favorite 'zines.
The 10 ``winners,'' based on 90 reader responses, are:
1. All things O.J.
2. Shannon Faulkner and The Citadel
3. Hugh Grant's Curbside Rendezvous
4. Kato Kaelin - America's House Guest
5. British Royals
6. Colin Powell - Will He or Won't He?
7. Michael Jackson Won't Go Away
8. Beatles Are Back
9. Jerry Garcia's Death
Mickey Mantle's Liver
E-mailer Dave Spain dubbed his choices ``sowhatwhocares.''
Nearly everyone, it seemed, voted for ``All Things O.J.'' In fact, that No. 1 pick had more votes, 80, than the next four items put together.
``The most overrated story of the century. I was tired of hearing about it and reading about it,'' said John Cox of Chesapeake.
Connie Davis took exception to calling Simpson's legal battle the trial of the century. ``I think Nuremberg might have been that,'' she said.
But, in the spirit of Junk News, Debra Burrell liked the way The Pilot ran an O.J. trial box each day on Page A2. ``I found it easy to ignore,'' she said.
No. 2 on the list was Shannon Faulkner - predictable, I suppose, considering that her brief storming of The Citadel shook up that other all-male bastion, Virginia Military Institute.
Next, Hugh Grant and Kato Kaelin were close runners-up, followed by Colin Powell and the British Royals.
``A real pain,'' Preston McLaird of Virginia Beach said of the royal family. They have ``no meaning to the American way of life.''
Reader Burrell thinks the royal shenanigans should be kept under wraps for 50 years. That way, she said, they ``can be a BBC miniseries picked up for `Masterpiece Theater.' ''
Michael Jackson nearly tied with the Beatles. ``Who cares?'' said Daphne Nickens of the Fab Four. ``I mean, those guys are over the hill and it's time for some fresh talent.''
Finally, there was the morbid tie vote of Jerry Garcia's ungrateful death to Mickey Mantle's liver transplant, a bleak obituary for celebs.
Hope Mihalap, the Norfolk humorist, wasn't amused. Garcia's death ``lionized a man who caused a lot of trouble and destroyed a lot of young people,'' she said.
And Edward S. Finn of Virginia Beach disagreed with putting Mantle's liver on the Junk News list. The coverage was ``worthwhile for transplant programs,'' he wrote.
The annual listing of ``Junk Food News'' is a project of Carl Jensen, a California prof who asks newspaper ombudsmen to vote on them each year.
His official Top 10 list looked much like the Pilot's, except that it included Mike Tyson and Windows '95.
Jean Otto, ombudsman for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, blames the media for becoming ``peeping toms.''
And, she added, ``If the public taste is to be raised to a higher level, the media have to draw lines about what is news and what is garbage.''
LOCAL JUNK NEWS. I asked readers to come up with local stories for the '95 Junk News list and was surprised by the variety of nominations. Here are some:
The Virginia Beach budget deficit. ``I just wish they'd tell us what's going on, rather than all this, `You did it, you did it,' '' said Lisa Tanner of Virginia Beach.
The neverending saga of the Lake Gaston pipeline - ``No more. . . please!'' begged John Cox of Chesapeake. ``I'm thinking of boycotting water until it's settled.''
The ``law-unabiding'' Pinky Starlight. We really pigged out on Pinky stories in '94 but our local porcine celeb continued her dietary travails this year.
The ``new MacArthur No One Will Shop At Disaster Mall.'' That epithet was submitted by George H. Webb of Norfolk.
Two Teenology writers' visit to what one of them called ``that mecca of boredom,'' Franklin, Va. Toni Sires of Norfolk pronounced the story ``boring and shallow.''
The Death Row diaries of Dennis Stockton, who was executed in September. ``Where were the articles from the victim's family?'' asked Paula Sprigg of Norfolk.
``Holly & Bobby,'' the series about the six-month deployment separation of a Navy couple. ``I didn't like it when my father went to sea, but we were taught to accept it, not to whine about it!'' wrote Linda Gower of Chesapeake.
The taped telephone romance of Arthur Dwyer, which led to his resignation as vice mayor of Chesapeake in April.
Other nominations included: The Veterans Day flag flap, Nauticus bashing, the heat this summer, the Canadian Football League, the projected Eastern Shore prison, the end of tolls on the East-West Expressway and the Navy stand down.
Well, tomorrow starts another year - and Day One for collecting the Junk Food News of 1996.
by CNB