...Working out on the stationary bike at the gym allows me to look around a lot more than the treadmill does. No, I've not fully given up my goal of being able to run 5 miles on the treadmill, but I'm rapidly advancing towards 10 on the bike - go figure.

So, I look around and I notice things. I notice that FoxNews has a new lead story - Britney Spears ran out of gas in Beverly Hills and was pushing her Mercedes to a gas station.

*This* is news? I know, I *KNOW* it was FoxNews, but still. Then again they did have a reporter state, after showing Michael Vick's comments that he was immature, that Vick might mean that dogfighting is appropriate for children. No, the reporter wasn't blond.

We've got senators who are soliciting same gender sex in airport bathrooms, pleading guilty but claiming that they're not gay. Oh, so he's just a sexual deviant instead, right? He's currently in "seclusion" probably hoping that it will all "blow over". Right.

Leona Helmsley leaves $12 million to her dog and cuts out 2 of her grandchildren from the will. Amy Winehouse's father-in-law is begging people to not buy her album because it will support her addictions. All these are things I saw on the television screens scrolling by while I was riding the bike.

What the heck has happened to news? When did gossip and "Page 6" sorts of items start ranking so high that they get to be part of the CNN scroll? I'll leave FoxNews out of that one - they think *everything* that's gossip should be "breaking news" (no joke, the Britney thing was labeled as breaking news). Of course there are some things that are still sacred. Owen Wilson attempts suicide and the press actually *is* leaving him alone...

...sort of.