Michael Moore was a guest on The Daily Show last night and he mentioned that his time on the Larry King Show had been pre-empted by Paris Hilton. Apparently, he expected a full show to himself, but Paris Hilton’s release from jail proved to be more newsworthy.
While I think Michael Moore is annoying and self-righterous, he does create movies that address important issues such as gun violence and health care. While his movies sometimes over-dramatize matters, they do provide an interesting case in favor of his views as well as a much needed different perspective on such matters. Thus, Moore seems worthy of news coverage.
It actually pains me to even write about Paris Hilton-by doing so I am actually feeding her publicity mosnter a few tiny crumbs. But, I do have to mention her to address the matter at hand.
Paris Hilton gets an alarming amount of news coverage-not only in the tabloids and trash TV, but on “real” news shows and channels like CNN. While Paris Hilton is annoying, she is not self-righteous like Michael Moore. But, she also does not do anything worthy of news coverage.
She is rich, but she is not rich because she does anything important or useful. In any case, someone being rich is not really news. There are many rich people and there is no real reason to give them news time because they are rich.
She does have sex, but so do most people. Unlike most people, she does film her activities and they get onto the internet-but that does not make someone newsworthy.
She does commit crimes, she has been sent to prison, she does act badly and sometimes goes without underwear. But other people do that and don’t get the coverage she does.
So, there seems to be no compelling reason to have her on the news-aside from the fact that people seem obsessed with her and hence doing so generates ratings.
Perhaps she does provide a public service-by filling up news time she takes away from the coverage of events and facts that would be disturbing to Americans. After all, every second of Paris Hilton coverage is a second we do not have to hear about deaths in Iraq, the poor state of American health care, what congress is up to, and what horrible misdeeds the Bush administration is currently inflicting on America and the world. Thank you Paris for keeping our eyes on the fluff and away from things that might bother us.