So I'm watching CNN this a.m. and I see scrolling across the bottom of the screen that The NY Post has done a jailhouse interview of Michael Devlin, the kidnapper of the two Missouri boys. Yeah, everyone is innocent until proven guilty and blah blah, but the two children were found in his apt, so let's dispense w/the bs and call a spade a spade: He's most assuredly a kidnapper and most probably a child-rapist. (I mean, the kids weren't there because he rescued them.) So what does the Post do? Gives him a chance to exercise his ego, to be a show-off, to get his 15 minutes of infamy. I wonder, will he tell us about a "troubled childhood" while he weeps? Sympathy for the Devil. Once again the NY Post, that bastion of journalistic integrity (Headline: "Headless Body Found in Topless Bar!") finds the lowest common ground. This tastelessness is on a par w/OJ's "If I Did It" fiasco. I can hardly wait for the Michael Devlin Reality TV series. Airing on Fox, right after Simon Cowell of the mega-hit "American Idol" viscously humilates some misguided idiot in front of the world by telling him that he's not only the worst singer of the night, but that he looks like "one of those creatures that live in the jungle with those massive eyes... Bush babies?" And the ratings soar, Cowell is more famous than ever, even while everyone pretends to cry "Outrageous! You've gone beyond the pale! (More! More!)" I have no doubt that the Post interview takes its cue from Reality TV, which is like a plague, pandering to our apparently insatiable appetite for the repugnant; making stars of loud-mouth low-lifes and the most pitiful suckers. Sleaze, it's the new Talent. Makes one long for the bygone, simpler days of Jerry Springer... Harold