Skip to main content

Paris Hilton is Not News

It is interesting what tries to pass as "news" these days. Unfortunately, the USA Radio Network this morning included a story about Paris Hilton. Here's what I told them.


I had a respectable and amicable discussion with a producer of the USA Radio Network news this morning. He agreed with me that he personally didn't find a story about Paris Hilton newsworthy, but felt that several of URN's listeners would, so they decided to include it. Suggesting that he was not the best person to be talking to about the subject, he gave me the e-mail address of the executive news director. This is the e-mail that I sent to the director.

Bob,

I would have expected it from CBS, from CNN, and even (especially) from Fox. But I was rather surprised this morning that your hourly broadcast included a story of 20-30 seconds about Paris Hilton going to jail or something or other. I say something or other, because I turned off my radio when the story began and counted to 15 before I turned it back on, and the story was still not complete, so I turned it off again.

The news that you normally present is very enlightening, educational, and important. Paris Hilton—and any stories about her—are none of these.

You have, I think, about 5 minutes of news time at the top of each hour. Even if anything about Paris Hilton could be construed as newsworthy, there are far more important stories to consume 10% of your broadcast with than to let everyone know that she went to jail.

The real problem, though, is that anything about Paris Hilton is NOT newsworthy. At best, it could be considered entertainment, although she is a poor and embarrassing excuse for what passes as entertainment in American society. Some of your listeners may demand information about Paris Hilton, but demand does not make an issue a news item. Ironically, I suspect that the caliber of your listenership would NOT demand stories about her; instead they are probably also a bit confused as to why you would pollute your news reporting with such stories.

It is the responsibility of a respectable news organization to report the news, even if the failure to include titillating non-news stories causes a decline in listenership (based on your news market, I suggest that it won’t). From my past experience, I expected better from USA Radio Network. I will continue to listen, but I hope I don’t have to hear about Paris Hilton anymore.

Sincerely,

Frank Staheli


I'll let you know if and how the director responds.

I feel sorry for Paris Hilton, as much as I feel sorry for any other person who has come across misfortune--whether self-inflicted or not--in their lives. But there are many such people in the world, and they are never in the news. The only "contribution" that Paris Hilton has made to society is to become a celebrity who encourages the degradation of societal morals. People who want to know about her in her current state can watch one of the mindless Hollywood magazine programs.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous6/04/2007 07:16:00 PM

    Here here, but I still find myself not changing the channel.

    ReplyDelete
  2. rmwarnick6/07/2007 02:29:00 PM

    Reluctantly, I have to say Hilton's sojourn in jail probably qualifies as news, especially when she gets out after only three days.

    What we could get away with if only the rest of us could afford lawyers that good!

    ReplyDelete
  3. rmwarnick6/08/2007 02:41:00 PM

    Oops, I was too quick to praise Hilton's lawyers. They tried to make a fool of the judge, bad idea. Now she's going back to jail for the full 45 days, do not pass GO, do not collect $200.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Frank Staheli6/11/2007 08:51:00 AM

    Hilton is a scalliwag that has contributed nothing to our society. I have to respectfully disagree with you. It's not news. No way. No how.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for commenting. If you have a Google/Blogger account, to be apprised of ongoing comment activity on this article, please click the "Subscribe" link below.

Popular posts from this blog

School Vouchers: "The Bramble Memo"

$429 million? What? Where? The legislative fiscal analyst for the State of Utah calculated the costs to the public schools over the next 13 years if school vouchers are implemented. It said the costs would be $5.5M in the first year, and $71M in the 13th year. Suddenly, the number I have started seeing thrown around was $429 million, the total costs for vouchers over 13 years. Where did that number come from? Enter the mysterious "Bramble Memo". In the past few days several of us (Jeremy, Utah Taxpayer, Craig, Sara, Urban Koda, Jesse, and me) have (sometimes?) enjoyed a lively discussion about school vouchers in Utah . Jeremy clarified to me the costs of the venture by linking to a copy of the Utah Legislative Fiscal Analyst's Impartial Analysis (LFA) of the costs of Vouchers , found on "The Senate Site". In my previous voucher article, I quoted some of Lavar Webb's article from last Sunday's Deseret News, wherein he stated that those total costs ...
66 comments
Read more

Why Do Liberals Coddle the Radical Islamic Monster?

Many liberals and progressives in the United States and elsewhere support a radical Islamic fundamentalist movement which, if it came to power, would quickly wipe out their liberal progressive ideology. Why then, do so many liberals coddle the monster that would destroy them? The Answer lies in their long-stemmed hatred of Western liberty and free markets. Dick Morris' new revelation of Hillary Clinton's ties to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism provides an excellent backdrop for me to ask the question that Greg Allen of The Right Balance has been asking for quite some time, to wit: If many liberals stand for free sexuality, homosexuality, the use of drugs, binge drinking, and other mindless expressions of individuality, why do so many of them also look the other way when it comes to Islamic fundamentalism? Don't they know that Iran has put to death as many as 4,000 homosexuals? Don't they know that if Islamists come to power they will not only make sexual perversi...
52 comments
Read more

The Inhumanity of Bob Lonsberry: Waterboarding, Concentration Camps, and the the Bataan Death March

KNRS 570 radio talk show host Bob Lonsberry advocated waterboarding and other forms of torture during his show on April 21, 2009. More grotesquely, he was beaming with pride about his advocacy campaign. It's difficult to imagine then, that, by the same rationale, had Lonsberry been a German at the time of Hitler, or a Japanese during the Bataan Death March, that he would not have advocated torture of Jews in the concentration camps or the bayoneting and shooting of American soldiers on the Bataan trail. Torture, Torture, Everywhere! Nearly 80,000 American soldiers were captured by the Japanese in the To contemplate a discussion about whether or not torture is legal or whether it even works, it is first required to come to the conclusion that 'I am a child of God, but my adversary is a monkey'. Phillipines in 1942 and forced to march with no food and very little water for six days. If a man stumbled, if he didn't respond quickly to a command, or if he tried to get wat...
50 comments
Read more