Less Paris news for me, thanks
Paris Hilton is guilty of nothing but being super "hot," and too many members of the national media have lost their minds — along with Hilton — about the 26-year-old's prison drama.
It's certainly an episode rich with irony and humor, as an incredibly rich hotel heiress and socialite is ordered to spend her days, and nights, in a place where service is notoriously rotten and people's moods foul.
We've too often watched, sometimes laughed, as she's learned prison cells are cold, smelly places where it's hard to get a good night's rest. People cry in jail, she's learned. Sometimes people with bad breath talk to you. It really sucks.
The national media, with all of the world's pressing and complicated problems needing coverage, has provided us with up-to-the-minute details about Hilton's legal woes. Meanwhile, the real work, the media's watchdog role, is tossed to the side.
Dozens and dozens of photographers are seen on TV pushing and shoving each other around a Los Angeles County Sheriff's patrol car leaving Hilton's Hollywood Hills home, snapping up shots of her sobbing facial expressions. A person could staff several daily newspapers with these mobs. They should be hunting down corrupt politicians and public officials and shining the media spotlight where a strong disinfectant is needed.
How many pictures, really people, do we need of Hilton and her family arriving and leaving Los Angeles County's jails and courts?
I understand the arguments for why people in and out of the media consider this newsworthy.
She drove recklessly, drove illegally and drove a judge crazy with her arrogance and her above-the-law attitude. Hilton needs some jail time, no doubt.
But the issue shouldn't so easily eclipse the Group of Eight summit, U.S. immigration issues or wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But it appears to have done so.
Some people actually feel sorry for Hilton, claiming she's being picked on because of her celebrity status. They are right, of course, but unfortunately forgot that if she had simply obeyed the law and respected the court she wouldn't be in this mess.
I wish the debate was as multi-sided and equally vigorous about whether embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should keep his job. I know, I know, Alberto Gonzalez who? He does not have amazing stems, so why would anybody care, right?
I'm afraid, folks, we've blurred beyond recognition the line between what's the responsibility of the news media and what's not. There ought to be clear distinction — recognizable to the dumbest amongst us — between the paparazzi and the press.
People like Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, who provides opinion analysis about Bush's European visit one day and Hilton's trip to the clink the next, are responsible for blurring this important line.
But before accusing me of casting stones, I don't think it's O'Reilly's fault, or anyone else of his ilk. It's our own.
Fox News is a business, run by a serious businessman. They are going to cover what we are interested in. Hilton equals good ratings, which means more advertising dollars. Gonzales and his not-so-sexy stems, well, you get the point.
As a consumer of the news I decided to cast my vote and change the channel. Regrettably, I'm done watching cable news for a while. I'm demanding more of my sources of news, so should everybody else.
David Cole is the Columbia Basin Herald's county reporter. He knows Paris Hilton would really like him if she just got to know him.