Tiger Woods et. al.
dbukauskas on Dec 8th 2009
The Tiger Woods “scandal” is the most recent and perhaps extreme example of a huge problem I have with contemporary media. Not just the celebrity gossip news in general, but the fact that it achieves such widespread consumption as well. First of all, most negative stereotypes of journalists today are probably perpetuated primarily by paparazzi, slavering gossip-hounds and their ilk. Second of all, the fact that someone has been in a movie, has published a few albums or is really good at golf does not make them any better than me. I’m not sure why I should care about how the personal relationships of people I’ve never met at the other end of the US play out if I have a perfectly normal social life to participate in right here.
The stubborn, determined violation of privacy and the mindless, un-critical consumption of the slop thereby produced is a self-perpetuating cycle which boxes actual news out of the public eye. The average working individual has only so much time to devote to the news, so it’s a shame that so many people seem to spend it reading about a golfer’s nightlife. Perhaps the news industry is resting on its laurels and failing to underscore what truly ought to be important to people in a relatively free society. This, of course, is totally unproductive of me to say, because as of yet I have no concrete idea for an alternative.
Filed in Uncategorized | One response so far
One Response to “Tiger Woods et. al.”
I agree with you. It almost seems like 30,000 troops means nothing to people. Or that gay marriage is not a particular issue with the general public. Or that abortion rights are slowly slipping away, and that the U.S. is becoming much like Brazil (where abortion is illegal and women suffer from the lack of it) with a visible, unofficial union of church and state ruling diverse peoples….yeah, that doesn’t seem to frighten people either. And I guess no one cares about wide-spread student protests in countries of interest either. People there want change and are taking action for it. Apparently, children born in poverty that are dying and being kidnapped and forced to do labor really isn’t too popular right now in the holiday season, either (I guess it kills the mood, although it’s still continuing to happen). Here, in our free society, we take more of an interest in families with multiple children, and celebrities and their sex lives. It’s personal of me to say, but this selfish behavior of the American people, mourning the difficulties of their life because they are not able to afford a flat screen t.v. for Christmas, is beyond shameful. As you can tell, this REALLY bothers me.