Nice writeup from the Wall Street Journal Online on how paparazzi and celebs play together, make money, and pretend that all the news are real. Gwineth’s photos right after birth publiesh in Us Weekly? Staged. Angelina at the park with her son? Staged.
They are hiring their own photographers to capture supposedly private rendezvous, tipping off reporters to their whereabouts and developing relationships of mutual back-scratching with magazine editors.
So next time you see the latest celeb gossip crap on the so called local news, delivered to you as if it’s so important that it can’t wait untill the end of the newscast, take a deep breath and remember it’s just celeb-controlled bullshit and you got duped to stick around and have yourself counted as a Nielsen eyeball.
WSJ – Caught in the act!
I hate all the gossip/celebrity pseudo news on local newscasts (which is a big reason why the wbfs morning show is so unwatchable).
That crap is for people who are either living vicariously through celebrities or whose lives are so pathetic that they make themselves feel better by learning about celebrities problems.
Kudos to the WSJ.
Was there ever a question?
Of course it is all staged. The celebs with their publicists, get someone’s name in the news to promote a movie, book, show, their image, something. It is a bunch of crap.
Who cares what hollywood does? Having been there a few times, it is all plastic, fake, contrived.
Such a positive message for 6:57 in the am.
Why does this not surprise me. Oh well, gives people something to talk about I guess.
This is a surprise to no one.
Let’s just put my name into the media for some stupid reason, so I can mention my book, or my coming movie, or just get people to think about me…. what a bunch of crap it is.
No big suprise at all, and worse yet the people that get their kicks off watching celeb gossip on the news seem to be the only ones that ever get counted as news viewers.
Thus we see ridiculous crap like channel 7 leading the 10 PM news on Feb 13 with “BREAKING NEWS”, about rumours about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes breaking up being published in a magazine. Ahead of all other important news like the war, etc. I was watching at work with a bunch of coworkers and the entire lunchroom was like….”That’s the top story? Who cares about those two a****les?”. The channel changed mighty quick.
To me, I think 4 and 33 are parodies of 7, and 7 is a parody of itself.
7 rocks, i saw that newscast online and thouhgt to myself “right the fuck on, they are leading with what i care about”, lets face it, the war is 3 years old and depressing, this was interesting.
4 and 33 have copied, but they are a faded copy of the original.
Ferdy, how very postmodern/Baudrillard of you: “To me, I think 4 and 33 are parodies of 7, and 7 is a parody of itself.”
I have a running file of 7’s breathless, thumping promotions because, when you realize that these images are set against one of the most postmodern cities out there – Miami – you begin to realize that the fantasies/predictions of Max Headroom (come on, you guys must know Max Headroom) are, in some ways, true.
Thumping theme music + celebrity media machine + need for ratings and money. It all adds up in the end.
Local news is supposed to be (and as many stations claim themselves to be) a place where viewers can learn information about topics and issues that affect them and the world the live — like the war, regardless of how old it is. I think I can live without knowing the psuedo-affairs of overpaid thesbians.
Chris,
To an extent you are right, but when a station, like 7 has 9 hours of news a day (including deco), they have the time to do a wide variety of stories, including entertainment, cause let’s face it, it is Miami, and celebrities are very important. I think more people on South Beach would talk about Paris Hilton rather than Condaleeza Rice.
Not all entertainment news stinks; it’s just that some are better at it than others. Local news is the wrong venue for it because these are not local stories. Can someone tell me with a straight face that you couldn’t do nine hours of news a day in an area with five million people? It’s just too easy to sit on one’s large derriere in a “satellite center” and download video filler. Sorry, but as long as 7 is owned by the same miserable cheapskate, it will always be the Connecticut School of Broadcasting on the air. Just look at who moves up, who stays put and who moves down. Anyone seen Sally Fitz lately?
I was also wondering what Sally Fitz is doing now. Remember when she and Rick were on?
Forget Rick. Remember when it was Sally Fitz and Peter Ford? Or when it was Sally Fitz and Steve Dawson (and Bob Soper doing weather and Jim Berry doing sports)?
I don’t remember Peter Ford, although that could just be my failing memory… 😉
OK, let’s really jump into the wayback machine. Sally Fitz, who is the eternal black hole of co-anchors (i.e., she makes everyone around her worse); with Steve Rondinaro, Bob Soper on weather and on sports, Lee Webb (the same Lee Webb now doing news for Christian Broadcasting Network!). All underpaid I’m sure (except Sally, of course).
didn’t rondinaro anchor with jill beach before sally? i don’t remember webb, but i do remember bret lewis doing sports.
Test this out