Dear Facebook Friend who is Highly Annoyed:

No, I don’t like him either.

And yes, I wish everyone would turn away too.

And yes, I agree that cheering one the people rising  up for democracy in the Middle East seems more important, and that everyone should turn to that. And I know you didn’t say this, but it would make us all feel nobler.

And if you truly decide to abandon TV tomorrow if Charlie Sheen is again the lead story, then I applaud you for making a commitment and keeping it.

But while we may not like it, Charlie Sheen is important. He’s got 428,000,000 actual search responses on Google. He’s brought literally billions of dollars in revenue to the studio. His strange behavior instantly cost 200-300 people their jobs, plus associated losses in the surrounding economy (including Burbank, where I live and work). And he’s got serious — and interesting — problems.

We may not like it. It may offend your noble sensibilities. But Charlie Sheen is newsworthy.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.