The Irish pop singer Sinead O'Connor was surprisingly eloquent on the Vatican matter. She explained why loud critics in Ireland were joyful and confidently hopeful. They all relaxed once the American media got its shark teeth into the story. O'Connor said everyone then realized that it was a done deal for a single reason: The Americans would not give up until there was no more story to be had. The ass of the hierarchy was destined to be grass. Apologies would not do. It would behoove BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, with his declarations of his love for the ''small people'' to remember this. Or get a more tactful speech writer.

So however damned we might feel because we have been forced to recognize untalented camera mongers like Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian or Snooki, we should realize that those continually presented pictures of certified airheads are only one part of it. We are also blessed because the nature of the media business and the perpetual pursuit of viewers/customers have combined for tragic but optimistic knockout punches that will send some of the biggest bad guys out of the ring on stretchers.

Of course, they will be reincarnated, which is why our country was devised to improvise solutions for the problems at hand and was provided with the tools to remake, or eliminate bad policy. It always takes longer for us to get there than we would like, but when we do arrive, waiting for us is the pleasure not of watching paint dry but of seeing the feet of those usually invincible turn to clay right before our very eyes and those of the world. You can't beat that with a stick.

Stanley Crouch is an essayist and columnist based in New York. He has been awarded a MacArthur, a Fletcher, and was recently inducted into the Academy of Arts and Sciences. The first volume of his Charlie Parker biography will appear within a year.

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