The war has taken a bit of a back seat to Terry Schiavo, but I think Something Else will jump to the forefront to be flogged to death before our eyes.
A few thoughts:
Anniston-Pitt divorce might be a biggie, because it is completely frivolous in the Grand Scheme of Things and not a hot button topic at all.
Baseball on Steroids might resurge with the start of the new season just days away.
Michael Jackson and his Campo De Weirdo, which is always entertaining in a perverse way.
An 8.2 earthquake in Indonesia. And maybe tsunami also!
I’m sure the outbreak of Marbug in Angola and the possibly killer tsunami-spawning earthquake in Indonesia will get buried by the Jackson case.
The death of the Pope.
The BTK trial in Wichita?
Gas prices drop below $1.50/gal.
Unlikely, but that’d be one hell of a story.
Robert Blake is available for book tours, I hear.
I’ll go with the pope as well.
I came here to say the Jackson verdict, but I don’t know when we’ll hear about that. Pope seems more likely.
John Paul is a tough old dude. I’m betting that Jackson’s trial finishes first, and he either moonwalks out of the courtroom triumphantly, or hops on a plane and schleps off to Thailand.
Tsunami/Pope/Jackson/Steroids, in roughly that order, depending on what happens. Should their be no tsunami and should the Pope not die, it’ll be Jackson.
Should a tsunami, the death of the Pope, the verdict of the Jackson case, and a major announcement in the steroids investagation all happen at the same time, of course, several newscasters will have their heads explode,and people shall go mad in the streets.
The tsunami?
No, you should never get real news in the way of showbiz.
It will most likely be the Jackson case.
Aniston-Pitt isn’t even in the same league.
It might be as big at Michael Jackson in the tabloids and entertainment reports, but it’s not something that you’re going to hear Peter Jennings mention.
You can only stay on Pope Watch for so many minutes. Without protests and the politicians involved, it’s got no sex appeal. When he dies, it will be a big story for a day.
I think almost certainly, the Jackson case will be the belle-of-the ball until the verdict. It’s taken a slight backseat to Schiavo-gate, but it’s got legs.
The steroid thing is basically played. But decreased home run totals will be a prominent angle for the season.
I suppose the BTK trial will be big, but really. . .who gives a fuck about Kansas?
Media has to find another juicy murder in California.
The Jackson trial is probably going to last for a good while. I’m expecting I’ll have to ignore daily updates on that for a long time.
The school shooting in Minnesota scarcely made a blip on the SDMB radar, at least, while it was lead news on TV and print media over here. Though not quite in the same league numerically as Columbine deaths-wise, maybe it will start to make up some ground now that the Shiavo story is slowly dying.
Is Michael Moore into Injuns?
The oil-for food report is due soon. From what I"ve read so far, it won’t look good for Kofi.
Iran is bubbling as well. Something military, probably by Israel, is unlikely but possible. I think it’s more likely that some sort of (covertly US backed) rebellion could surface.
Cable media will be all over BTK.
The effect of gas prices as summer approaches.
Expect this headline (or some variation):
“Arctic Resident Enslaves Humanity; Declares Self ‘Benevolent Dictator’”
or
“Robot Submarine Army Annexes World, Nunavut Boy Claims Responsibilty”
The only people who give a toot about the Food-For-Oil corruption probe are the right-wing talk-radio fans, who need some fresh meat to whip them into a manufactured frenzy again. Everyone else knows it’s a small-scale scandal that pales next to the Iraq war WMD buildup.
I can almost hear the lead-in now, “What REALLY killed the Pope…story at 11!”
My guess? Midget blow-gun assassins trying to cover up the lucritive white slave trade being funneled thru the Vatican (to create a virtual army of illigitimate offspring [therefore, untraceable 
] from the prostitutes to be sent to the underground diamond mines/meth labs) that the “Pope” (who was all this time an ‘imposter’, go figure!?!) was going to blow the whistle on, thereby foregoing his millions and millions of profit (tax free, doncha know!) from the sale of said commidities (that was diamonds and meth, for those not paying attention. And the prostitution. But that was just bonus!) because of his chance meeting with the real Pope being held in a secret chamber in Scotland, and being duped into the “Church Thing”.
And to think that whole Scotland trip was just cause he had a “kilt-kink”. If you know what I mean…
It’s been a heck of a week for the news, isn’t it? Johnnie Cochran’s death bumped the Schiavo story and the earthquake story for a while, and it also supplanted the boy scout director porn story. Yiy.