I caught a segment on the CBS Morning News that fascinated me.  A young French immigrant – Jerome Jarre – arrived in New York City just over a year ago with a mere $400 in his pocket.  In a quintessential American Dream story, Jerome has achieved literal overnight success with his 6 second viral videos on Vine.  His knack for capturing the notoriously short attention span of millennials – apparently the “holy grail” in the advertising world – has raised the eyebrows of corporate executives from Sony and General Electric, to name a few. He even reportedly refused a million dollar deal to create a “Vine-branded” video for a food manufacturer because he thought their product was unhealthy!  Wow, it DOES exist – a capitalist (albeit reluctant and French, to boot) with a conscience!!  By the way, a Vine-branded video is 4 times more successful than your standard, run-of-the-meal video.  The metric was not divulged in the news segment as it was likely deemed too much detail for the viewers.

There is only one thing that stuck in my craw about the story.  In closing, the anchors (King and Rose) attributed Jerome’s success to his good looks, French accent, and the randomness of the videos – the fact that they could happen to anyone.  A teachable moment squandered.  No mention was made of the fact that Jerome left socialist-leaning France for America, where capitalism is still alive – albeit on life support – to pursue his dream.  In fact, it is the free market – where the consumer drives demand – that in turn drives demand for his particular skill/talent/service, allowing Jerome to not only command a premium price for his labor but to reap its fruit (or at least half of it, after taxes).  But I guess that, too, was deemed too much detail for the viewers or at least does not fit the liberal media’s narrative.  The devil IS in details, right Ms. King?!