There has been enormous coverage in some of the media recently about the phone hacking done by Rupert Murdoch's news organization in the UK. The phone hacking is leading to arrests, amid tremendous upheavals of public opinion against Murdoch's organization and methods.
There has been equally excessive coverage of the Casey Anthony case in Florida, leading up to and continuing after the recent acquital of the charge of murdering a lovely young child.
The Rupert Murdoch scandal has resulted in the closing of a very profitable although tacky tabloid (think UK version of the National Enquirer). More likely it will simply be reopened and rebranded, with business as usual.
I find the outrage a joke. Not that Murdoch and his organizatoin haven't behaved badly - they have. But whether it be the Casey Anthony Trial or the stories chased bymeans fair and foul, the driving force behind the stories is not ONLY the greed of people like Murdoch for power and proift, it is power and profit that is the result of a sick, intrusive curiosity on the part of the tabloid consuming public.
We can recognize that the media is contributing to a sick intrusive curiosity on the part of the public.
If the public is outraged at Murdoch, a share of the blame for the scandal resides, ultimately, with that same public that demands juicy, scandalous, personal details. So long as that demand exists, there will be those, like Murdoch, who thrive and profit on other people's misery.
For myself, I choose not to indulge in that curiosity about the misery of celebrities, public figures, or tragic crime figures. I wish everyone would consider how preoccupied they are with other people's misery, with celebrity. Pay attention instead to serious issues, to discerning facts, to understanding not leering over the details of other people's private lives.
Bread and circuses! That's why people are being fed celebs and other glitz to forget their lives.
ReplyDeleteWell said Laci, but we can all of us choose to accept or reject the bread and circuses. It comes down to actively deciding if we will be manipulated - in this case by the media, for profit; sometimes by the prosecutors and defense attorneys, who gain a higher profile, as well.
ReplyDeleteOr we chose our humanity, compassion and dignity, and do not become obsessed with lurid details and the misery of other people's lives.
I don't know which is worse, the celebrity obsession, or the obsession with the private lives of people in power in business and politics. At least in those cases, the details can actually impact our own lives in some way; or the people bring the attention on themselves by claiming they represent family values that others don't. THOSE people, imho, are fair game for the media attention because they try to trade on a false image. THAT focus is simply about a legitimate interest in accountability and transparency.
And even then, it should have limits.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to say that Rupert Murdoch has media holdings in the US. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have fallen in their journalistic value since his takeover.
ReplyDeleteAnd Fox News?
Fox News, the US version of News of the World!