Have you been watching that stupid spoiled whore and pointless oxygen-waster Paris Hilton on the news over the last few days and thought, "by no stretch of the imagination is this news"? It's bad enought that our celebrity-obsessed media give her airtime at all, but why are our *news* programmes now infected with the adulation of someone who is single-handedly and knowingly leading the sexualisation and dumbing-down of our young women?
Well, at last, a real journalist has taken a stand and has refused to read a Paris Hilton "story" on television. MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski on the Morning Joe show was visibly annoyed when she was handed a script with Hilton's jail release as the top news story of the morning. Brzezinski apologised for the story and said that she didn't want to read it but she had to. Host Joe Scarborough said that was a cop-out and she should take just refuse to do it - which she did by promptly attempting to burn it, then eventually shredding the script - much the the amusement of her colleagues.
Margaret Thatcher once spoke of "the oxygen of publicity". Paris Hilton serves no purpose in this world, and the world would seriously be a better place without her. We all know this. So, why do the media time and time again broadcast details of her vacuous and pointless existence.
In America, Hilton's pitiful antics are not news. What is utterly perplexing, though, is that she and the circus surrounding her make it onto the British news agenda. Her jail release was a top story on BBC TV's flagship 10 O'Clock News.
I salute you Mika Brzeszinski and I hope that your peers are shamed into following your lead.
Stu ;-)
UPDATE - Saturday 1030hrs.
BBC News 24 are now covering this story - as an "and finally" joke item. They show the moment where Mika tries to burn the script, but we don't get to hear her saying "I just don't believe in covering that story, at least not as the lead story on the newscast, when we have a day like today," she said. Shame on the BBC. A very serious point was being made by a fellow journalist that has resonated with millions of people around the world (read these comments BBC). Mika Brzezinski deserved respect, but the BBC chose to mock her. Even BBC Online have categorised it as an "Entertainment" story.
I'm writing a letter of complaint to the BBC. I'll let you know their response.
Stu
I'd like to think so, but if *no-one* is interested in Paris Hilton, then why is the skanky heiress getting news coverage every time she blows her nose on, among others, the BBC's flagship 10 O'Clock News broadcast? How can we get it through to news broadcasters that this IS NOT NEWS? I am sickened by the BBC's treatment of this Mika Brzezinski story. They've turned it into a joke story. They should be showing journalistic solidarity and applauding her and saying to their own producers "I'm going to do that the next time you abuse your priviledged position of setting the news agenda".
Posted by: Stuart Arnott | June 30, 2007 at 15:21
Nice - but isn't this what the rest of us (6.6bn) have been not thinking?
Posted by: Mike Riversdale | June 30, 2007 at 14:58