I Loathe Celebrity Gossip
Tuesday, December 2, 2008 at 11:41PM I really loathe the celebrity gossip culture. I read an article recently that suggested that celebrity obsession was a healthy outlet for most people. I can't find the link at the moment but no matter because I disagree with the article. Celebrity obsession is not good for most people. It distracts us from real issues. Al Gore said it best in his book The Assault On Reason:
"At first I thought the exhaustive, nonstop coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial was just an unfortunate excess—an unwelcome departure from the normal good sense and judgment of our television news media. Now we know that it was merely an early example of a new pattern of serial obsessions that periodically take over the airwaves for weeks at a time: the Michael Jackson trial and the Robert Blake trial, the Laci Peterson tragedy and the Chandra Levy tragedy, Britney and KFed, Lindsay and Paris and Nicole.
While American television watchers were collectively devoting 100 million hours of their lives each week to these and other similar stories, our nation was in the process of more quietly making what future historians will certainly describe as a series of catastrophically mistaken decisions on issues of war and peace, the global climate and human survival, freedom and barbarity, justice and fairness. For example, hardly anyone now disagrees that the choice to invade Iraq was a grievous mistake. Yet, incredibly, all of the evidence and arguments necessary to have made the right decision were available at the time and in hindsight are glaringly obvious."
I hate to lose faith in our society just because we are searching for Britney Spears but it is hard not to. Thus the rant. I'm sorry to be negative. It is not my usual M.O. but sometimes belligerence is necessary.
Oh, and Happy Holidays!
Reader Comments (34)
Nice job on Red Eye! The Pete Rose story was hilarious. After that, surely you can die a happy woman. Congratulations on your success (the real kind).
Jeff
Fellow CSU, Hayward graduate, Business, 2003
Fellow FUSD graduate, American High School, Fremont, 1999
I was born in a land where celebrity gossip is huge as well. Hong Kong is a really small city, but the influence over Eastern Asia is huge. Whenever I read a Chinese newspaper, the amount of pages for world news it's just as many as the celebrity sections. I was never into the celebrity news as much, but I remember the OJ simpson news was the beginning of my distaste of watching tv. The white bronco incident interrupted the broadcast of game 5 nba finals between my beloved knicks and the rockets. I wonder when will these tabloid like news coverage, which is now bleed to politics, will ever end?
Not quite related to this topic, but I'm hoping someone may have an answer...
I use Juice as my podcast catcher. Sometime after switching to CNET, the rss feed broke and I hadn't gotten around to figuring out why. Looking at the feeds, it seems the file sizes are reporting as 0 size which juice seems to choke on.
Any tips?
(I'd like to continue using juice)
Thanks
I agree with your sentiments Natali. And as someone in the public eye, I am happy you are speaking out about it.
From a SF guy who lived in LA during the mid-90's, I agree 100% that celeb obsession is counterproductive. Btw, hope your 2009 is better socially. NYC is quite different when you're used to SF
I couldn't agree more. I think a lot of people have been baffled when intelligent people turned every conversation to Britney Spears, Gawker, and Dancing with the Stars. I realize the friggin' gigantic death toll in Iraq is not a party starter, but I couldn't really care less about Paris Hilton except as a symbol of inherited wealth run amok.
Don't I sound like fun at a party.
I've been amazed how few people know what is going on in the Iraq, and what is happening to our own children, brothers and sisters there.
I, like others, just wall off the news which I can't bear to think about , and feel helpless to change. As an American who has lived and worked abroad, I can say that we,,and our news agencies are preoccupied with ourselves, and regretably because of a sense of superiority. I think that is why most of the world would rather bite our faces off. I am guilty of being ignorant, of so many things which are important. High Tech Input overload, DIVERSIONS ( like really charming news hosts, uh,,like on FOX ) allow us to avoid the painful, indepth reading / listening / learning . Guess I should leave this web site and do something,,more productive. Oh,,well later,,,
hi,
sometimes it's really sad that some people seem to have no real life and therefore have to focus on other lifes that are much more interesting than their lifes...
cu, sebastian.
I do think that there's some value to harmless esacapism, though. some people read books, some head to the gym, some think of old lovers with lust and regret. Thanks for the post.