I had another one of those “I’m glad I’m here!” moments this morning. That’s what I say to myself – or to anyone who’s asking at the moment – when I see something on cable or network TV that I KNOW I’d be stuck fretting over when I was at CNN, even though I couldn’t care less. Today it was at 9am when I tuned in to Good Morning America and then MSNBC to get a sense of the news of the day. It was unanimous. The issue of the day: Is there a “relationship” (wink, wink!) with Madonna that is casing a divorce for Yankee Alex Rodriguez and his wife? That was followed up by Christie Brinkley’s tears and reports of her husband’s porn addiction at their divorce proceedings. These are the most important things in the world for us to be concerned with?

It’s a fact of life in television news. Even though we’re at the real beginning of a historic Fall Presidential campaign and have two warfronts overseas chewing up our people and resources, we’re fed a steady diet of celebrity shock every time we turn on the tube. It won’t be long before we get to this season’s missing damsel story line, I’d be willing to bet. It always happens in the summers, when the nation takes it’s vacationing seriously. I suppose it’s our generation’s version of beach reading.

Is this because that’s what we tell the TV execs that’s what we want, or is it just what they’ve decided to serve up because it’s cheap and easy to do? You tell me.