The Washington Post is one of the elite newspapers of the United States. It’s the only newspaper, aside from the New York Times and USA Today, that one could call a national newspaper. What is a headline on the front page of the Washington Post‘s website? Tom Cruise Proposes to Holmes at Eiffel Tower.
I have a question: Why should we care? Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are actors; they’re not any more important than anyone else. Certainly, acting is a tougher profession than many people credit. But other Americans work hard, too, and we don’t see their engagements on the front page of a newspaper website. What gives the “engagement” of Cruise and Holmes greater significance?
Let’s widen our gaze a bit. What about music and movie stars makes them so special that they merit coverage even in Time and Newsweek? What makes them so compelling that at least two syndicated television shows (Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood), one weekly magazine (People), and an entire cable network (E!), are necessary to cover their lives?
The answer, of course, is, “Nothing.” Other topics, which I outlined yesterday, deserve all that bandwidth and ink more than the personal details of vain celebrities. I do support attention to film, music, literature, theater, and other arts; these are essential components of any thriving culture. (If anything, we should concentrate more on literature.) What we don’t need all this focus on, though, is the private minutae of celebrities. None of it matters. The impact of a gnat is greater than its effect on the American public.
I understand, however, why the media operates at it does. As I said yesterday, the media enjoys easy assignments. What can be easier than waving a microphone in front of an actor’s face or chatting with Hollywood gossip mongers? In addition, such coverage is easy on the audiences. After a hard day at work, they can understand what’s happening without challenging their intellects or preconceptions much. They can also live precariously through the deeds of celebrities.
Those Americans who behold their peers from the heights of power love this. Government officials, influential lobbyists, Congressional representatives, etc., likely don’t have vile hidden agendas. We don’t have little Palpatines at work, as some paranoid individuals would have us think. But they would still like to conduct their business without intense scrutiny from the American people. That way, they can toil more for the betterment of their own positions and expansion of their own powers than for what’s best for the country as a whole. This is what happens in many principal-agent relationships when the principal doesn’t closely watch the agent. (In this case, the principal would be the American citizenry, while the agent would be their government.)
So long as the American media and public would rather keep up with “exciting” celebrities than “boring” politicians, this situation will continue.
If we care about our country, then we must reverse this trend. We must observe our government more strenuously. The next time you’re tempted to watch Entertainment Tonight or read People… watch Wolf Blitzer Reports or read U.S. News and World Report instead. Consider turning on C-SPAN rather than E! Decline the bread and ignore the circuses that distract us from the nation’s real issues.
Our free and prosperous future depends on it.
About the Author
I'm Jason Vines, a web developer at a research institution in Washington, DC. I graduated from George Washington University with a bachelor's degree in political science, with a minor in journalism. I enjoy philosophy and web scripting, as well as reading, writing, history, video games, travel, and photography.
