Clip of US Weekly senior editor Bradley Jacobs, employee of 2007 Spec Blue Pencil dinner keynote speaker Janice Min, an alumna from the mid-80s. That publication’s controversial cover had me Googling this Bwog writeup of the event, which perfectly captures Min’s slightly infuriating view towards the relationship between celebrity journalism and politics:
“Some of you may not approve of my particular corner of journalism,” Min started out, before embarking on an eloquent defense of celebrity gossip rags. While acknowledging the argument that her media genre may have contributed to the dumbing down of society, she pointed out that much of educated America spends more time decrying the tabloidization of the country than “the actions of a reckless administration.” Paris Hilton didn’t start any wars, you know.
Besides, it’s business, Min said. Entertainment in America is a $29 billion industry, and it makes sense to cover the titans in Hollywood as rigorously as we cover steroid scandals in sports or campaign finance reform.
This is the classic “gotta pay the mortgage” argument with a slight political twist: don’t blame me for caving to the populism of the dumb masses, she says. Rather, blame the Bush administration for taking advantage of said dumb masses. Or better still, read my magazine instead.
But the idea that celebrity journalism is harmless, apolitical, populist etc. is complicated by the US Weekly cover. Does Min now have a different understanding of her responsibility to the checkout line crowd–one that goes beyond covering a “$29 billion industry” with the accuracy and, above all, the integrity we have come to expect out of her publication? Or is there now scant qualitative difference between the latest Paris Hilton exploits and the latest political trainwreck? Well, there’s one difference at least: US Weekly no longer writes about Paris Hilton.
Bring back Paris!
jk.
Said tom4,
On September 7, 2008 at 4:39 pm: