Today on the Glenn Beck show, Judge Napolitano, sitting in for Glenn, brought up this very sentient question: Why is this singer’s death more important than that of our military men and women who give their lives to protect this very country, which Jackson so freely enjoyed? Answer: It’s not more important. And shame on the media for not doing their job.

On June 25th, Army Lt. Brian Bradshaw was killed in Afghanistan by an IED, and his aunt wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Post asking the “why” of the importance question. Lt. Bradshaw was one of 13 servicemembers who gave their lives for all of us since that date, and they should be equally memorialized.

My nephew, Brian Bradshaw, was killed by an explosive device in Afghanistan on June 25, the same day that Michael Jackson died. Mr. Jackson received days of wall-to-wall coverage in the media. Where was the coverage of my nephew or the other soldiers who died that week? There were several of them, and our family crossed paths with the family of another fallen soldier at Dover Air Force Base, where the bodies come “home.” Only the media in Brian’s hometown and where he was stationed before his deployment covered his death.

I remember Brian as a toddler wandering around in cowboy boots and hat, not seeing the need for any other clothing. He grew into a thoroughly decent person with a wry sense of humor. He loved wolves and history. Most Christmases, I gave him a biography or some analysis of the Civil War. He read such things for pleasure.

He had old-fashioned values and believed that military service was patriotic and that actions counted more than talk. He wasn’t much for talking, although he could communicate volumes with a raised eyebrow.

He was a search-and-rescue volunteer, an altar boy, a camp counselor. He carried the hopes and dreams of his parents willingly on his shoulders. What more than that did Michael Jackson do or represent that earned him memorial “shrines,” while this soldier’s death goes unheralded?

It makes me want to scream.

I know and I realize that journalism/television news is a business and has to make a profit, but there has to be some point in time where ratings be-damned, a network says “enough” of this crap. They may suffer ratings from celebrity-obsessed nitwits in the short-term, but in the long-term, folks will start to realize what real news is. And they’ll also begin to shun fake news that has very little merit past a 5-minute segment on “Celebrity XYZ Died Today.”

Shame on ALL of us for fomenting that celebrity culture. I pray each and every day that we as a nation and culture can overcome this.