California Wildfires Get the Lohan Treatment

"Is it just me, or is the cyclical nature of California fires and the media frenzy that burns right along with them getting old to anyone else?" says Associated Content Producer Davis Presboot, speaking in reference to the wildfires that have currently evacuated half a million people and at this very moment burns two cities very close to me. I feel compelled to answer his question though in one very simple word, many people should be familiar with it, and that is, "No".

While the notion that this wildfire is just a "common" problem that is getting "overly hyped" by the media is laughable to the extreme and you may expect others to outright decry this absence of urgency about the calamity, another Content Producer is quick to harp on. " Absolutely agree with you. I'm in Bangkok, Thailand and watched CNN yesterday. The first 30 minutes of the news program were on the fires, although other much more important news was happening all over the world. I finally switched to the BBC who only mentioned it for the first 2 minutes of news coverage - much more reasonable in my opinion," said another Content Producer in the comments section.

At this point my jaw was fully agape. Frequently, across this very forum of discussion, articles have sprung up demanding that we just stop covering Lohan's and Hilton's profligacies, since there are more important things to worry about on the news. I agreed with this 100%, I honestly couldn't care about semi-attractive celebrities on drugs or smashing into trees, this is the stuff of E! TV, and while there's a great market for it, if I want to see it I'll turn there. I will, rather, watch CNN, FOX News, and other such channels because I'm interested in hearing about things that really matter.

The idea that my entire home state is on fire might be a good bit of interest to me.

The outcry that "wildfires are so common in California that this isn't newsworthy", however, is utterly ridiculous. It would be akin to growing distasteful of coverage on Hurricane Katrina, because hurricanes are a frequency in Louisiana, so what makes this one so special? Well, it did just wipe out New Orleans, so it does put it somewhere on the map of "special, but frequent, problems".

For those that haven't quite realized it, yes, California is a haven of fires, but this is a particularly bad one. Every year, while living in California, I'd turn on my television and see some sort of explanation that somewhere was on fire, usually in the Los Angeles area. I usually did not pay it much heed, because as everyone has pointed out, fueled by Santa Ana wins and the dry brush, this isn't something new to the state. However, when a fire starts in Malibu, engulfs most of it, then moves down and evacuates people from Irvine, and another evacuates good parts of San Diego and engulfs Escondido, causing 500,000 people to flee their homes, this has escalated from a "typical wildfire".

Indeed, Lohan, Spears, and Hilton have finally been replaced with a catastrophe - a devastating fire ravages two major American cities.

And we ask for the Triumvirate of Hollywood to come back.