I’m frustrated that so much news coverage has been devoted to Paris Hilton and her jail experience. While I see merit in mentioning her case since she is famous and to give as an example that being rich doesn’t insulate one from legal consequences, I feel the amount of prime-time coverage is actually dangerous to our nation and culture for several reasons.
One reason why such a barrage of coverage is dangerous is that it feeds her ego and the warped ego of her family. They seem to be proud of her (lack of) accomplishments and bad deeds. I sometimes actually feel sorry for her to have been raised in such a spoiled household. Such an upbringing has made it much harder for her to amount to something productive and worthy of note in my opinion. Similarly, it is unwise to allow ourselves and our children to consume such ridiculous quantities of worthless drivel and gossip.
Second, I feel such coverage is dangerous because it takes away from truly life-threatening issues that we need to hear about. Take Iran, for instance. Iran is rapidly mastering the technologies needed to develop nuclear weapons. Furthermore, Iran is is developing and acquiring the delivery systems for such weapons as we pay attention to fluff like Paris Hilton. For years the international community has done little more than twiddle their thumbs as this threat has materialized in front of our eyes. And if this isn’t enough, there is ample evidence that Iran is arming insurgents and thugs who are killing American and British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. We rarely hear about these details and yet they have more impact on our daily lives than Paris Hilton does in a year.
It makes me sick to think of the real dangers in the world while we fill our minds with useless voyeuristic nonsense about the poor choices made by the likes of Paris Hilton and other unworthy “celebrities.” It’s time to wise up and think.