Keeping tabs on what's important

Pointless entertainment gossip site E! Online's report of the death of John Travolta's son includes this excerpt:

Travolta, wife Kelly Preston and their chidren, Jett and daughter Ella Bleu, arrived in the Bahamas on Dec. 30 and were joined by friends and family before Jett's death for a long-planned party over the holiday week.

Many of the friends are from Florida and nearly all are staying at Old Bahama Bay Resort where Jett died. No sign yet of any celebrities.

"No sign yet of any celebrities"?! I suppose they are doing an admirable job of sticking to their journalistic raison d'être, but really it just underscores how shallow and pointless celeb-chasing is.

The Travolta family's loss is tragic, but no more so than it would be for any family, famous or not. That makes it doubly sickening that E! Online considers it newsworthy that there was "No sign yet of any celebrities". That line tells us that the lack of celebrity appearances is cause for heartache--for E! Online, that is. As far as they are concerned, that is the bigger tragedy of this whole dead son business.

see: Autopsy Scheduled for John Travolta's Son; Friends Gather to Mourn