Wednesday, August 16, 2006

barks has bite

At the end of last week it seemed everywhere I turned to for news decided that news content need not actually be news. I must have heard about or read about Paris Hilton getting bitten by her dog four or five times. In what universe is this valid news? Even considering her celebrity status, she didn't get bitten hard enough for it to be news. I'd bet if Ted Dansen or Hillary Duff or Derek Jeter had been bitten by a dog that no news outlet would have reported it unless it was a serious bite. So why should I care about Paris?

I think this probably annoys me more because I think most celebrity news is unbearably shallow.* What difference does it really make who Brad Pitt ends up with or whether Michael Jackson is bankrupt? Why should I care about celebrity relationships in an environment where it's way out of the norm for someone to be married longer than it takes for their driver's license to expire?

Anyway, back to Paris. I think maybe a cameraman and reporter should be assigned to follow her 24/7. It would be a shame for the world to be deprived of an inside story if she does something groundbreaking like stubbing her toe or forgetting to eat breakfast. Inquiring minds want to know.

* In an effort not to look like a hypocrite, I acknowledge that sports news is shallow too. I sometimes enjoy the competition involved in sports, but sports news isn't any more relevant to my actual life than celebrity news is.

5 comments:

GoldenSunrise said...

Celeb news is my guilty pleasure. I found out yesterday that Hilary Duff has an older sister Hailey.(they have a new movie out)

T said...

Hailey Duff was on 7th heaven. I don't know if you watch it or not. I use to think they didn't look alike, but the older Hilary gets the more she looks like her sis.

I could care less about Paris. I do occasionally catch a news story here or there on celebs I have an annoying knack for remembering it even if I don't care. It makes for good conversation with the right people! At the very least it gives me an oportunity to know something! LOL

roamingwriter said...

I don't care about celeb news and tend not to remember any of their names, so I have to say thing like, "you know that one movie, with that one guy in it." I think there is more tv celeb news in the US but loads of magazines here for celeb,royalty news. The sports segment on the TV news here is basically a big celeb sports segment and it's really long compared to sports at home. I'm with Dust, what's this got to do with my life?

f o r r e s t said...

Sports news is not shallow. You can't compare sports and celebrities. That is like saying the weather news is shallow, because you want to know how to dress for tomorrow.

Sports has a deep economical impact in our cities and many people have vested interest in their teams, so flashing highlights and scores to me is the same as following the stockmarket report.

shakedust said...

Sports indeed has an economic impact. A negative one on sports fans and a positive one on specific businesses. There are intangibles that the fans get for their payment, though, so I'm not really dissing it.

I think that you are partially right though because sports is entertainment, so it falls more under the guise of news about movies, plays, and concerts. Sports star news is more like celebrity news.