The Birth Certificate is Less Important Right Now Than Other Things: Let's Get It Together Guys

I work the front desk at a hotel and every day I browse through news articles but not because I show a true interest in American politics.  I'm a horrible American, minority, veteran, etc., because I feel as if I don't time to worry about things that I feel don't matter to me.  Don't get me wrong, I care about what is going on that is actually important in our great country, but sometimes a lot of what people put on speculation seems pretty ridiculous to me.

A few articles I've skimmed through this week really got on my nerves.  One article, from CNN Opinion, finally calmed my nerves when I read it today.  In this article, author Tavis Smiley, speaks on the issue of how the media helped to inflate mass controversy about President Barack Obama's origin and birth certificate.  Reading his article made me feel bittersweet with both disgust in Smiley's notion and also wanting to applaud his recognition of such a ridiculous situation.

The most noteworthy aspect of the article was a paragraph that read, "...the real danger in the artificial crisis over the president's birth certificate is not Donald Trump becoming president, but a news media unwilling to apply a basic filter for what it publishes, posts and broadcasts. Failing to do so degrades the quality of news in general, making people less trusting and increasingly disinterested."

Why do we care so much about whether or not Obama has a birth certificate?  There's so many other things we must focus on rather than whether or not an already elected president is a natural born citizen.  But yet we allow the media to let us believe that something so irrelevant is very important, at this moment.  

Granted, I do believe it is something that should not be overlooked.  But why now?  Shouldn't we be screening our presidential candidates before they are elected into office.  Not only that, the media's effect on America is quite absurd.  By focusing on things that are less important, we set aside greater issues that should be put forward.  

The media's persuasive effect on America manipulates politics into a pop-culture and forces many Americans to lose sight of what reality is.  By scrutinizing politicians, we are only wasting valuable time and energy that could be potentially used to focus on other things.  I.E. natural disasters, war, violence, etc.