For many years if you wanted celebrity news you could pick up the latest copy of People magazine, or the much less credible tabloids at the grocery checkout isle. Paper magazines quickly launched into TV magazines. Shows like The Insider or Access Hollywood or Showbiz Tonight we programs you could tune to when you had the urge to know where "TomKat", (For those less into pop culture that is Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes) or "Bennifer" (In the past Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez...now Jennifer Garner) were last seen eating dinner.
If you wanted to know about the latest legislative news or foreign policy developments you would watch CNN, Fox News, or your local evening news etc.
For some reason it hit me like a load of bricks this week...CNN's FOX's ABC's CBS's normal news broadcasts were giving HUGE loads of airtime to 1. Anna Nicole Smith's death and 2. Britney Spears haircut. Then I heard Rush, Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly giving the same celebrity story headlines on the Radio Talk shows. Then I saw coverage watching SportCenter!
The junk news now gets equal, sometimes more coverage than the real news...yes, I'm slow... it just hit me this week. Journalism seems to be completely commercial and ratings driven. But not in the normal 'hard hitting story' kind of way...in the 'Celebrity Addiction' kind of way.
Anna Nicole Smith's court room saga has been carried LIVE on CNN and other networks. At the time of publication (Thursday, 3:16 EST) The Anna Nicole Smith story is the primary headline at 3 of 4 websites I just spontaneously went too: CNN.com, ABCNEWS.com, FOXNEWS.com. Britney is a front page sub story on each of those.
My question is simple: What does this say about our emerging culture in society?
I would like to hear your thoughts.
- Brad
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