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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
That's really odd.
I wrote "Sorry for Paris, Disgusted with the Media". Nice to get a star but odd to come home later and see it gone.
Maybe it wasn't such a great letter or maybe somebody got mad at me for dissing Broadsheet again? I've been annoying about that, I'm sure. Except I truly do think it's emblematic of what's wrong at Salon.
Oh well. I'm writing this right beside an ad for the Forever Seductive Fragrance...
Who/where is there anyone in American "grovelling for their leaders"?
After five years of Faux News's sycophantic Bush-licking (they have gotten a bit less slavering in the last year), can you honestly question that there are Americans with that attitude? There are people in this country who were teaching their children to freakin' pray to Bush, remember, and they haven't gone away.
yes I do, but only because of a general bent toward compassion. She can't help being rich and spoiled, unprepared for the harsh realities of life. At the same time, I could care less if she learns and grows from her experience. Her emotional, physical, or intellectual state is of no concern to me. What I do care about is the fact that legions of empty headed little girls are thinking to themselves right about now: "hmmm, it's not hot to drive drunk".
Look at it this way, Paris. This is the only good thing you have ever done for the general welfare of the community.
No. Never. Sorry, but that's really misinformation. No such thing, except maybe in some weird cult somewhere that almost no one has ever heard of. That is not remotely where pro-Bush or pro-War on Terror minds are at.
the legend that poor Argentinians worshipped Eva Peron as a saint was also false.
I almost never shout in all-caps online, but seriously, this warrants it.
As others have pointed out, she won't plague us with her meaningless celebrity if you stop giving her press. So stop already. It's going to happen eventually, it always does, so why not lead the pack and give up the habit now?
Anyone who gives a fuck what this nonetity does is an even more worthless human than she is. Salon doesn't need those people as an audience, and hopefully will never have them as one. So you can stop insulting your existing audience's intelligence and sophistication any time now.
To the people who are desperately trying to spin this as being relevant for other reasons, like jurisprudence or cultural relevance or some vast Freudian template, I call bullshit. There are a lot of other cases in America, cases you will never hear about, which expose the deeper issues here in a more meaningful and complex way.
This is voyeurism, populism, and celebrity-chasing, regardless of the gloss it's given. It is psychological pornography for the unexamined-life set. And it is a desperate attempt to construct mythology without employing heroes or heroines.
In the end, that's the only genuine takeaway from this: America has become so hollow that it is now trapped in its own meta-emptiness.
Sorry to bring this up AGAIN in the Salon letters columns, but I have to say it...this web site has spent more time on the ramifications of Ms. Hilton's troubles than on the bravery/foolishness/controversy surrounding Cindy Sheehan and her willingness to speak truth-to-power.
Which IMHO, is the best commentary yet on the state of American culture in 2007.
Bad enough that a news organization seems to take the weekends off (especially since I can't... sour grapes n all that), but devoting space to this classless piece of shit... damn.
If you want to do this tabloid shit, and shit it is, bring back The Fix and put it in there. At least we knew what was coming if it was in the Fix, and could be avoided if desired. And it is desired.
MSNBC, CNN... don't get me wrong, all the media whores are banded together in this.
In case anyone was wondering, I get my news from NPR, and so far, I have only heard about 15 seconds about Paris there. Which is, I suppose, about all she is worth, side-show value-wise.
It is my sad duty, nay, my nauseating duty, to inform you that it's true - the groveling, the worship, even the teaching kids to pray to the Idiot Prince. One case would be too many. I travel in a lot of different circles, but I don't have to look too far (like, some of my relatives) to know this ubelievable crap is actually true.
It certainly doesn't help the sincere Bush supporters (and apparently there are one or two left, although you can count me out of that elite circle) but it really is true. God, I wish it weren't.
My gene pool needs more bleach...
and their apparent desperate willingness to prostitute themselves in a pathetic attempt at rejuvenation ...
Yesterday's NYT reported that the major clothing labels are facing breakneck competition from celebrity labels, which is reminiscent of the complaints of the major modeling houses for the last decade or more that celebrities are taking more and more of the fashion covers and pages and the "grand tradition" of elite models was being swept into the dustbin ... (this is true ... consider Elizabeth Hurley, seemingly one of the last top models, being replaced by Gwenyth Paltrow ... Catherine Deneuve being in a whole other class).
It's not something to keep one awake nights. When I first saw Hilton I thought she was a faux-Hilton, like that faux-Rothchilds flim-flam man, and that she would quickly be revealed to be both a "con" and a transvestite/transexual (the hardness of her sheen is so unfeminine) ... too bad Paris has zero sense of humor. She might have found both a niche and some affection ... she's a shrewish racist ... and her sponsors don't care.
The problem with cable television and ALL the myriad media outlets is that they DESPERATE to find CONTENT to frame with advertising revenue.
500 channels and nothing's on.
quite willing to settle for faux news ...
at my supermarkets (even my very small mountain market), there are close to a dozen celebrity/gossip rags, and that's just the glossies... there are also a half-dozen "fashion/style" mags, heavy on the celebrities (Vanity Fair, Vogue, O, etc.... Then there's the expanding half-dozen or so, old-fashionednewprint scandal sheets ...
Are they all loss-leaders?
I read a couple of years ago that many cable TV stations actually make almost no money ... but regardless, those hard-to-get licenses like that "fixer-upper" down the road might turn to gold one of these days in right market ... even if the cache and status previously associated with being a medial mogul produces less revenue than anticipated at time of purchase.
Another story, un-developed.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
