when was it, exactly, that our country became so wildly obsessed with celebrity gossip?
I mean sure, we all remember OJ. but I like to think that was on a slightly different level as far as "newsworthiness" goes than, say, angelina and brad's less-than-perfect marriage. I'd say that it can't have really gone into full swing more than a few years ago. my first real memories of celebrity gossip as something i was "supposed to know" are hazy memories of the younger and slightly less prison-worthy exploits of the hilton sisters and lindsey lohan.
for a while now, i've been feeling sort of behind-the-times. i even read perez hilton for a brief week of my life, in an attempt to catch up on the gossip. i read US weekly and all of a sudden had something to talk to people about. but right around the time the Michael Vick dogfighting incident blew up, i started to get a bit creeped out. That's around the time that i realized that all the news "buzz" i was hearing was about Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan's various crimes, Amy Winehouse's multiple addictions, Vick's dogs, and Britney Spears's....issues. But while everyone was talking about that, let's just consider a couple of "events" that attracted little to no attention among the majority of the American public:
- Karl Rove's resignation
- Alberto Gonzales's resignation
- the air force "misplaced" five nuclear warheads (for an interesting take on THAT, check out what digby has to say)
- that Larry Craig thing is still going on
- oh yeah, isn't there something going on in Iraq? i forget what...
feels a little sinister, no? the fact that the majority of America has managed to just "forget" to pay attention to anything our government is doing is not a great thing. I'd wager most of us don't even know who all is planning on running for president in 2008. and that's AFTER the whole presidential race has been turned into a slightly more boring version of celebrity gossip. i'd hate to think how many people would be well-informed enough to vote if the candidates just presented their platforms and ran with no publicity stunts.
the moral of the story: i've decided to log off of perez once and for all. i'm scared if i keep reading, i'll get sucked under with him. and i'm still holding on to the dream that we can get out of this mess.
I mean sure, we all remember OJ. but I like to think that was on a slightly different level as far as "newsworthiness" goes than, say, angelina and brad's less-than-perfect marriage. I'd say that it can't have really gone into full swing more than a few years ago. my first real memories of celebrity gossip as something i was "supposed to know" are hazy memories of the younger and slightly less prison-worthy exploits of the hilton sisters and lindsey lohan.
for a while now, i've been feeling sort of behind-the-times. i even read perez hilton for a brief week of my life, in an attempt to catch up on the gossip. i read US weekly and all of a sudden had something to talk to people about. but right around the time the Michael Vick dogfighting incident blew up, i started to get a bit creeped out. That's around the time that i realized that all the news "buzz" i was hearing was about Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan's various crimes, Amy Winehouse's multiple addictions, Vick's dogs, and Britney Spears's....issues. But while everyone was talking about that, let's just consider a couple of "events" that attracted little to no attention among the majority of the American public:
- Karl Rove's resignation
- Alberto Gonzales's resignation
- the air force "misplaced" five nuclear warheads (for an interesting take on THAT, check out what digby has to say)
- that Larry Craig thing is still going on
- oh yeah, isn't there something going on in Iraq? i forget what...
feels a little sinister, no? the fact that the majority of America has managed to just "forget" to pay attention to anything our government is doing is not a great thing. I'd wager most of us don't even know who all is planning on running for president in 2008. and that's AFTER the whole presidential race has been turned into a slightly more boring version of celebrity gossip. i'd hate to think how many people would be well-informed enough to vote if the candidates just presented their platforms and ran with no publicity stunts.
the moral of the story: i've decided to log off of perez once and for all. i'm scared if i keep reading, i'll get sucked under with him. and i'm still holding on to the dream that we can get out of this mess.
5 comments:
wait, i'm supposed to know who is running for president for an election that is over 12 months away?
there are hilton sisters? brad and angelina's marriage is not perfect? i obviously need to choose longer lines at the grocery store.
Oh I feel so dirty and guilty. I, for one, will continue to read Perez. Somebody's gotta give you the digest version. ;)
i think the Craig thing counts as celebrity gossip. imho.
you cited digby!! that makes my heart warm!
i've heard one argument often on the liberal blogs - there's nothing necessarily wrong with celebrity news, or sports news, or whatever other kind of news. what's wrong is when it replaces the REAL news in REAL news venues. i think that's pretty much the bigger point you were making...
put differently, i'd say there isn't anything inherently wrong with the existence of perez hilton...what's wrong is stories about brangelina clogging up the evening newscast instead of an expose on Iraq.
well according to perez, castro is dead. isn't that hard news?
(of course, anyone with common sense would know that castro is dead, but hey.)
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