I am sure by now you know that pop star and worldwide celebrity Prince is dead at the age of 57. His body was found at his estate in Minnesota earlier today and police are treating it as a crime scene but that should not imply a crime has been committed, at least not yet. It is standard procedure.

I am sure you know that Prince died because just like every time a celebrity dies in America it becomes the only story on the air. For example, I have been watching CNN since the top of the hour and right now we are at 39 minutes of continuous coverage without a break and no mention of anything else going on in the world.

Don’t get me wrong I think Prince was an incredibly talented musician, songwriter, singer and one of the very best guitar players I’ve ever seen. His songs like ‘When Doves Cry’, ‘Tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 1999’, ‘Purple Rain’ and ‘Little Red Corvette’ among others are considered to be classics by millions of people. We are now at 51 minutes of continuous coverage since I began watching.

It looks to me like they are just getting warmed up. They had kids mining for Prince videos, interviews, photographs and anyone who ever had a conversation with the guy. I guess CNN is unaware of any other news stories of interest today.

I thought about it for a minute and thought I could help with this short list.

There are currently wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Poverty is claiming the lives of thousands of starving children in Africa today. America is going broke and could soon spiral into a debt crisis, not to mention the contentious battle for the White House. There have been three people arrested in the Flint water crisis with more on the way. The Zika virus could spread farther north into the United States as we head into summer, Russia is buzzing American ships with jet fighters and China is claiming man made islands in the Pacific give them brand new sovereign territory. Isis, Boko Haram and Al Qaeda are trying to get their hands onto nuclear material to make dirty bombs to attack Europe and the US while at the same time they turn non-believers into into sex slaves for life. It’s been 59 continuous minutes now without a break in sight. Not one of these other stories has any significance when a member of the pop-culture-elite dies.

At what point does it just become absurd? I am at one hour and 6 minutes. The anchors are repeating themselves because the news is the same, musical icon Prince has died at age 57. That is really just about all they have said. The rest is filler. I can guarantee you however that those in charge of the news operations are celebrating. This will give them something to talk about 24 hours a day for the next several days. They will roll out every childhood friend, school teacher and of course all of the other pop-culture-elite to give comments and make commentary on his life and legacy.

Meanwhile two more kids were just gunned down on the southside of Chicago while walking home from school. Some teenaged gang bangers that were tying to kill a rival gang member over a turf war selling illegal drugs killed them by accident. Nobody will send a news crew. Nobody apparently cares.

A few hundred more veterans will fail to see a doctor today despite the gravity of their situation with failing health because of a broken VA system. Nobody will hear about that. They won’t hear about the new invasion at our southern border where agents are reporting a 1200% surge in illegals brazenly crossing into our country.

What people will get a chance to hear is another friend of the dead pop star telling us about a party they went to in 1988 and how he was the hottest freshest thing in music and how he will be so dearly missed.

Let me tell you something the two dead school girls in Chicago will be dearly missed as well but nobody will ever hear about them, or the veterans, or the sex slaves, or the starving, or the war torn, no not today because today the only thing that matters is that a member of the pop-culture-elite died.

And we honestly wonder what is wrong with this nation? How about this for an idea- maybe our priorities are way out of whack.

It’s now been 77 minutes and not one other story has been mentioned, Prince is still dead, no other concrete facts have been shared and I’m turning off the TV. Maybe you should too from time to time.

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