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The Forum > Article Comments > Selling out celebrities > Comments

Selling out celebrities : Comments

By Mark S. Lawson, published 22/2/2008

Whatever happened to the real news? It now seems to come with helping or two of what can only be described as trivia or gossip.

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A few weeks ago ABC news reported the death of someone called Heath Ledger. No one in my workplace had ever heard of this person. For weeks the ABC kept it coming. No word about who he was - other than the name. There must have been thousands out here saying, "Who is/was he?"
Why is his death more significant than my neighbour's ? Please Explain! Still dunno.
It certainly is worming its way into areas previously uninfected.
Posted by Henery, Saturday, 23 February 2008 3:59:24 PM
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Because your neighbor has no money! lol.
Posted by evolution, Saturday, 23 February 2008 11:28:25 PM
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Henery.
I have taken note of news bulletins on every TV Channel in my area (4).
The priorities are,
Sport,
Commercials,
Promos,
Celebrities,
Stock Market,
Pop Music,
australian content,
world content,
3rd World content.
Important issues.
Posted by individual, Sunday, 24 February 2008 10:02:30 AM
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From January all through February China has been going through the worst weather to hit in over 50 years.

I e.mailed some of my friends back in Oz to let them know I was still o.k., and got mystified answers back saying why wouldn't I be? It was only this week that a couple said that, by tuning into SBS they had finally heard the extent of the devastation.

Yet a State of Emergency has been in force since late January, calls put out to other countries for help, food and, at one stage, when there was only enough coal left for the next 4 days, emergency supplies of that fuel were also being asked for. The debt for all this is in the billions and still rising.

I would have thought that for those convinced that the whole of China is poised on the brink, casting lustful eyes on Australia this would have been top news. Also, the people who dived under their beds when the Chinese Government last year deployed much-needed money into the military would be relieved to note that the army right now is too busy coping with refugees, trying to reach remote areas that have been cut off without power for weeks, establishing refugee centres etc. etc. to launch the Yellow Peril at least for the next couple of weeks?

It seems however, that the death of one actor, which has no repecussions for anyone but his friends and family, is more important.

Not many of us are destined to be a Heath Ledger or a glamorous Nicole Kidman, but footage of ordinary people trying to get on with their lives in extraordinary circumstances might forge some sort of a link with a country that many people still fear.

Still, perhaps that's the point: stay ignorant, live in fear and, meanwhile, look at the pretty pictures of the beautiful ladies and the handsome gentlemen. Its worked for hundreds of years, hasn't it?
Posted by Romany, Sunday, 24 February 2008 2:45:39 PM
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Bread & circuses, Romany. It's where the money is and no-one gets upset. Win win, really.
Posted by bennie, Sunday, 24 February 2008 3:15:27 PM
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Romany, well done.

The fact that there is only 6 comments here and over 70 in another article about atheism might suggest a better market for the news people...
Posted by Reality Check, Monday, 25 February 2008 12:03:09 PM
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The gulf gets wider between the educated who consume news from the ABC and broadsheets and the rest who get their input from the commercials, radio talkback and tabloid papers. The level of dumbing down that has occured I think over the last decade of commercial media is just incredible- the focus on so called celbrities is just part of the whole trashification. Much of the population now has no regular access to information that is basically objevtive and intelligent- perhaps its a consipiracy to keep the plebs dumb and compliant. It must be really depressing to have to work as a journalist at the moment.
Posted by pdev, Monday, 25 February 2008 3:14:56 PM
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pdev,

Y'know, I hadn't thought about it before it terms of the gulf getting wider...but you're right: it is. Markedly so.

Ten years ago when I went back to Oz after a long time away I made a whole new group of friends. As is usual, one tends to make the deepest friendships with those who are on the same page, so to speak. We went through a lot of ups and downs together and shared our lives, but I had noticed, with one or two, that there were gaps creeping in.

Now that we are communicating only by e.mail those gaps have, in some cases, become yawning chasms: their news is of celebs and immigrant outrages and, now that almost two years has gone by, often of people of whom I have never heard. They have started expressing the kinds of views that, had I heard them ten years ago, would have caused me to avoid such people like the plague.

I've actually spent a lot of time mulling over the fact that I seem to be growing away from a couple of people I once held so dear - and vice versa. It wasn't until I read your post that I realised exactly what was happening.

What a sad (and angry) conclusion to arrive at.
Posted by Romany, Monday, 25 February 2008 6:35:10 PM
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