COMMENTARY | It is no surprise that the next breaking news story will most likely be about a celebrity.
Celebrities receive a large amount of media coverage these days, leaving many of us to wonder if the level of coverage is appropriate. Society has an insatiable need to know everything about the most popular actor or musician, almost bordering on obsession.
Some deserve the attention, for example Matt Damon’s July 2011 acerbic comments about a cameraman at a teacher’s rally after they stated that “lack of job security makes teachers work harder,” while we are inundated with the poor choices or bad habits of others.
In July 2006, when Mel Gibson got drunk and arrested in Malibu and then went on an anti-Semitic and sexist rant, it seemed he jumped off the deep end. The news coverage for his downward spiral was warranted because it’s important to remember that “products” celebrities put out to the public are often in line, either directly or indirectly, with their personal views. If those views and their work don’t match up, where does that leave the audience who has followed this person throughout their career?
Most recently, the Kim Kardashian debacle has evoked mixed emotions in reality TV watchers because such a big deal was made out of her August wedding to Kris Humphries with a two-part TV special, magazine covers, co-hosting gigs and appearances on every channel. The level of coverage for that wedding was over the top, but the coverage for the 72-day marriage and subsequent divorce filing on Halloween fell in line with the amount of exposure Kim Kardashian and her family created in the first place, as it does now with Mindy McCready and the battle over her son Zander.
It is something out of a movie to hear about a country singer allegedly kidnapping her 5-year old child while seven months pregnant with twins and on the run. As it turned out, McCready was found with her son hiding in a closet in an unoccupied home in Arkansas and furthermore, she may not face criminal charges for her actions while her son resides in a foster home. Although it is hard to tell when to draw the line with celebrity media coverage, whether we like it or not, there is always an audience for it, which means we may never get passed celebrity media obsession.