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Anna Nicole coverage exaggerated |
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Tuesday, 20 February 2007 |
According to Thinkprogress.org, NBC’s Nightly News devoted 14 seconds to Iraq compared to three minutes and 13 seconds to the death of Anna Nicole Smith.
CNN referenced Anna Nicole 522 percent more frequently than it did Iraq.
MSNBC was even worse: 708 percent more references to Anna Nicole than Iraq.
The death of Anna Nicole Smith is tragic and, I suppose, in the entertainment world it is newsworthy.
However, when I turned the television to CNN last week, and the program
schedule listed a full hour of coverage on the death of Anna Nicole
Smith, I was disgusted.
 Active Image | Ashley Holland | Editorial Cartoonist
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Coverage such as this should be limited to the death of presidents and
major leaders, not to a B-rate celebrity and the drama and gossip
surrounding her death.
At first, it was almost humorous the way the media flocked to the story.
Everyone knew that Smith was bound for tragedy with her wild lifestyle and obvious drug and alcohol abuse.
However, when people are breaking into her hotel room and photographing
her post-mortem refrigerator, America’s sick fascination with celebrity
gossip has gone from amusing to demented.
According to FoxNews.com, the photos were posted by TMZ.com and
depicted Smith’s alleged refrigerator of her house in the Bahamas. In
the refrigerator were a large bottle of methadone, several other
prescription pill containers and several cans of Slim-Fast shakes.
This sent the media into a frenzy.
Most stations aired the photos in their extensive coverage and began
suggesting that it was a joint suicide since Smith’s son died of a
supposed mixture of methadone and other prescription drugs.
This is another example of how Americans, and our ever-reliant
dependence on gossip about anybody’s life but our own, can turn a
tragic end of an even more tragic life into a form of entertainment.
Smith was definitely not what I would consider a role model or even a
celebrity for that matter, but she did live a difficult life and was
surrounded by liars and crooks throughout most of it.
Whether this was her own fault or the fault of others, only she can
really know. Either way, we should find a way to respect her death.
Allow her family and those who loved her to grieve as you would expect
when it came to your death or a death of a family member.
Although she is a public icon and has put herself into the spotlight,
it really is none of our business what caused her death or who fathered
her newborn daughter.
Let’s get our news broadcasts back to topics that should really concern
the American public, such as the developments in the War in Iraq and
major changes in our political system.
Leave the lives of celebrities to that of tabloids and magazines that
are already so good at taking small, rumored details and turning them
into ridiculous stories.
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