Cue The Vultures

Except for the fawning details of the Obamas' big date night in New York City, there has been nothing more nauseating in the media the past week than the public flogging of Susan Boyle.

You obviously know the details. Here's the poor singing shlump who went on "Britain's Got Talent" and wowed one and all with her talent. The audition video on YouTube got more hits than a buxom hooker during Fleet Week. And the rest was history. I know I got sucked in early on to the song stylings and I was duly impressed. Good for her. A big and deserving break for somebody who probably wouldn't have gotten a sniff from anybody.

But, as soon as Susan Boyle got hot, the media went into overdrive. Because once you are successful, the real "fun" comes in knocking you down. The Day of the Locusts arrives one more time. Let's get a carcass going ASAP because the crows are hungry.

And, as the media starts their demolition derby, the general public are fed the same meal. They also go into the wrecking business because, for a reason no decent person should be able to explain, it has become a great party game to destroy somebody else's reputation. Pain needs to be dispensed like Pez at a kid's birthday party. It is a horrible thing to watch. Yet, we all have to. And then the media gives us some more. And the public eats it up. And then the media gives us some more. The purest form of a vicious cycle.

I sense that lots of folks couldn't wait for Susan Boyle to be upended. Even by simply coming in second in that talent competition, her pain was deemed incomplete by her fellow men. Nope, one news story after another kicked her some more by focusing in on her life, her looks, her everything.

"The unworld spinster..."

"The plain-looking old maid..."

"The dumpy songstress..."

I saw all those descriptions in print and I wonder what kind of satisfaction came from describing her in that way. At the same time, I looked at the same overzealous news stories on the Obamas in NY and I didn't see this.

"The big-eared President and his chocolate-tinted wife..."

How much more different and inappropriate is what I just wrote when compared to how the press described Susan Boyle? A lot, apparently, because certain folks are currently deemed as "off limits" to media scrutiny. So, why can't everybody get the same velvet glove?

What did Susan Boyle do to you or me that warranted such treatment? Allegedly, over the course of the talent competition, she got testy. Threw some water at a studio worker. Had a hissy fit at some photographers. I'd challenge anybody to maintain their own personal dignity and demeanor when suddenly thrust into the spotlight with an unforgiving and watchable media at every turn. I couldn't do it and neither could you and you and, yes, even you.

Susan Boyle wound up in some hospital from exhaustion and that, too, is over-reported. She succumbed to the treatment that was doled out and now that's also her shortcoming. Shame not on her. Shame most certainly on everybody else.

Of course, I can hear some of you now. "Gee, Len, I read your blog and you can really be nasty on some people." You betcha. If you're deliberately in the public eye like a politician or an octomom, your stupidity, arrogance, and pomposity is fair game. You made the choice and lay your sorry self out there for all to lampoon. Susan Boyle did not do that. What is her ultimate sin? She joined a rather public talent competition and did so innocently, simply because she likes to sing. So, her punishment is nowhere matching her crime.

Now, I realize that, early on in this entry, I referred to Susan Boyle as a "shlump." Duly noted. So, Miss Boyle, on behalf of the rest of the world, let me be the very first to apologize.

Dinner last night: Louisiana hot sausage at the Dodger game.