Arnold and Maria: Dangerously Insignificant Politics of Celebrity

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Arnold and Maria: Dangerously Insignificant Politics of Celebrity
by Michael Fox | Oct 26 2007


Oh, the irony! Maria Shriver has announced that she will not be returning to her career in journalism because she is so disgusted by what television news has become in the wake of the Anna Nicole Smith imbroglio. Quoted in the Los Angeles Times, the First Lady of California said, "it was then that I knew that the TV news business had changed and so had I."

This is rich coming from a woman who spent a year doing "in-depth" stories on the OJ Simpson trial, and spent years doing the oh-so-hefty weekend Today Show? What exactly has changed? Might it not have been more dignified to simply retire without the commentary? Particularly in light of her position as the more articulate half of the world-class ueber-celebrity couple, it would have been more honest to simply discontinue her NBC contract without making herself the inevitable object of ridicule once the old video gets dug up. I can already see Olbermann doing the side-by-side of this statement and one of her hard-hitting movie-star "gets"!

I am certainly not defending the state of television journalism today, as it is indeed indefensibly awful, but it is the very nature of celebrity veneration that enabled her and her husband to vault to the positions they now hold. The woeful lack of information provided by network (and most cable) news channels to those too lazy (or simply too busy) to seek it elsewhere, has been one of the most dangerous components of our failure as a democracy. The electorate can't make an informed decision without adequate information, and an electorate spoon-fed the deification of celebrity will vote accordingly.

So the celebrity action star marries the celebrity mouthpiece, and announces his candidacy on her network (on a comedy show, yet), and they become the celebrity Governor and celebrity First Lady of the celebrity state. Well done, American Television Journalism! Couldn't've done it withoutcha! A state the size of major European countries has as its chief executive a man who has absolutely no experience in elected politics, courtesy entirely of the nature of celebritizing the news, and now his wife has decided that journalism has sunk below her standards!

What a low bar that must be.

But while she is providing us with this timely assessment of the state of her profession, he is doing what he does best: pandering to what's left of his Republican base, and doing so at the worst possible time, and for no discernable reason!

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http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/10674