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Celebrity Journalism and Politics.
November 2003
IT IS A FAMILIAR and disturbing formula. First the media have a field day helping create celebrities for millions to care about and admire. Then, they pass on poorly documented or inconsequential gossip about every aspect of the celebrities' personal lives, making them the most talked about personalities in the world. Next, they tear them down bit by bit by pointing out their inadequacies. Finally, they chase them out of the public limelight with indignation and anger.
The news media have fashioned a journalist-celebrity relationship that really doesn't exist off camera. On camera, news people act as if the celebrity is their best friend. They call the celebrity by his or her first name. They joke about the celebrity's life in intimate terms. Off camera, the celebrity barely remembers the broadcaster's name. No better example of this can be found than in the saga of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. At first, the media lionized them, serving them up to the American public as the perfect couple, the cute couple, the loving couple, the down-to-earth couple. No aspect of their private lives was left unexplored. No candid picture unpublished. Even Affleck noted to one reporter, "I'm sick of reading about me and seeing pictures of me. I can't imagine the public feels any different."
Celebrities savaged
The two celebs, aware of what happens if luminaries start ignoring the media (they are savaged), tried to be as accommodating as possible. They sat for endless TV interviews, chatted with every reporter, posed for every photograph. When the "cute" phase of their relationship played out, the media decided it was time for Phase II--digging up every unpleasant episode they could find. Emphasis was on the negative and salacious, featuring the ugliest candid photos captured by paparazzi hiding in cars and bushes. They portrayed the two as arrogant, uncaring, so involved with themselves that no one else, not even old friends, mattered. Phase III struck with a vengeance, How dare Affleck and Lopez think themselves important enough to warrant all of this attention? Their downfall was hastened by a film everyone denigrated--"Gigli." Only an ingratiating appearance by Affleck on Jay Leno's "The Tonight Show" fought the tide of destructive propaganda against Ben and Jen. The actor was so charming as he read some of the worst reviews imaginable, that he no doubt convinced some viewers that maybe Affleck and Lopez were not the evil duo they were made out to be. The viciousness of the reviews and analyses by news commentators seemed unequaled in the history of recent entertainment reporting. It was delivered with a fury and a vitriol usually reserved for Michael Jackson and Roseanne Barr.
What mortal sin had these two entertainers committed? They had tried to cooperate with the media by making themselves available whenever asked; they had performed as well as they could in a film that wasn't good (hardly a Federal crime); and they had kept their sense of humor intact as the gathering storm engulfed them. None of this mattered to reporters intent on showing their superiority to two celebrities they helped create. What the media giveth, the media taketh away--with devious delight.
All of this celebrity journalism may be sad and unprofessional, but hardly a threat to our way of life. Yet, when this same kind of mindset enters the political arena, the stakes are higher and there is danger in the game. Building up political candidates and then bringing them down is old hat. Today, the new wrinkle is the snide commentary within the news reports themselves. Major take-out stories in the national newsmagazines not only offer facts and figures about the candidates for president and governor, but decide which candidates are valid and which candidates are has-beens before anyone has voted. In one cover profile on a Democratic nominee a national newsmagazine deigned to feature, the publication reported on a poll in which this particular candidate came in first, then added in a nasty aside that the poll most likely was invalid because the man who finished second had no chance in the race. What was he doing coming in second anyhow? Hadn't he read the news media analysts who said he wasn't a viable choice?
Biased commentary
Editorial comment used to be reserved for the editorial page, but no more. Descending from "new journalism," the reporter as an informed source and pundit thinks he or she must provide biased interpretation and commentary instead of impartially covering the story, celebrities, and candidates accurately and fairly. Suddenly, it is the reporter who is the key witness for or against the celebrity or politico. The result makes for a strange and alarming trend: The news media feeding on themselves, deciding who is worthy and who is not, deciding what celebrity or political candidate to praise one day and which to damn the next. Program after program features journalists interviewing journalists about stars and politicians. It is the journalist's analysis, interpretation, feelings, ideas, and conclusions that have become more important to the story than the subjects involved in the story itself.
What would happen if the media decided not to pursue celebrities or politicians as friends or foes but simply as reporters trying to do an accurate and fair story? Are journalists capable of remaining impartial and keeping their opinions and assessments to themselves? Imagine if journalists cared less about personality and glamour and more about substance and issues? We wouldn't be reading still another story about "Bennifer" or ,another actor running for office, but we might be able to get some valuable information that could prove useful the next time we go to the movies or polls.
Joe Saltzman, Associate Mass Media Editor of USA Today; associate dean and professor of journalism, University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication, Los Angeles; and director of the Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture, a project of the Norman Lear Center, is the author of Frank Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film.
by Joe Saltzman
Article Title: Celebrity Journalism and Politics. Contributors: Joe Saltzman - author. Magazine Title: USA Today. Volume: 132. Issue: 2702. Publication Date: November 2003. Page Number: 65. COPYRIGHT 2003 Society for the Advancement of Education
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