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Yahoo! News Highlighting Wicca Beliefs of Mega Millions Winner

Monday, September 3rd, 2007

I was scrolling through Yahoo! News this afternoon as a distraction from my work when I came across the following headline:

Wicca teacher claims 1 Mega ticket

As a naturally curious person, I read the article while realizing that Yahoo! News and the Associated Press were using a silly headline to get the attention of readers.

Who cares if Elwood “Bunky? Bartlett is a Wicca teacher or helps practice New Age medicine? It does not contribute to the story at hand and it seems like Yahoo! News is simply highlighting the freak show that is American society. Bartlett’s remarks in the Associated Press interview seem normal but the centerpiece of the article is the agreement the ticket holder made with the “multiple gods associated with his Wiccan beliefs.? It seems that Mr. Bartlett asked to win the lottery in exchange for a lifetime mission of teaching Wicca to interested students.

I think my annoyance with this story comes from my belief that lottery winners are not newsworthy. While the media expresses concern with the fame of people who have done nothing (read anyone from The Hills or anyone named Paris Hilton) noteworthy, they try to promote “average? people making it big. If I won the lottery, I would be happy with winning the lottery and not having the Associated Press breath down my neck. Lottery winners should decline comment, do the press conference that the lottery will invariably set up and hopefully live happy without letting the money get to them if only to break the curse of big time winners who have encountered unthinkable problems after their victory.

Posted in ABC News, Yahoo, abc, lottery | No Comments »

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