HTG, pick a news source: TV, mainstream press, Internet online news, weekly newsmagazine, whatever. From my perspective, browsing through the "here, there and yonder" of it all, the vast majority of it is what used to be limited to "News of the Weird". Now, damned near all of it is indeed weird.
Some years back, my mother was griping about the absence of statesmen in politics and government: "Statesmen. We used to have statesmen. Where are the statesmen?" I replied, "Mom, I've given up on statesmen. All I'm looking for is a mature adult."
So I watch the utterances of important people like Paris Hilton and Hugo Chavez; Hillary Clinton, Bush or the Iranian leader, et al, and I wonder, "Where are the mature adults?"
A correlative question, of course, is, "Why are all these weird commentaries considered "News"?
Art