In Defense Of Paris Hilton By Ray Hanania

Oh the whiners in the mainstream American media. As if Paris Hilton is somehow below them, the dredge of American professions.

Paris Hilton is an icon to young Americans, and maybe that is why most journalists and media pundits, cantankerous old souls with no sense of real life remaining in their thin skins, despise her so much.

Hilton entered the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, California Sunday night to begin serving her 22 days in the hoosgow for for violating her probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case. She is set to be released June 26.

Yet the media won’t let up, joking about the challenges she’ll face. Mocking her because, well, she was a celebrity before she became a TV star.

Rich socialites become famous long before they ever achieve anything. It is the American way.

But the hypocrisy in all this is that Paris Hilton would be nothing save for the unquenchable vicious thirst of the mainstream media which put her 26 year old face in the media limelight from the time she was just the young Hilton Hotel heiress.

If Paris has been in our face, blame the media, not her.

Is she any different than any other young person, except for the fact that she is wealthy?

Maybe that’s why journalists hate her so much.

Most journalists are poor wretched souls who barely make enough to live on. Those that do, usually do it by glomming on to the celebrities they cover and transforming themselves into celebrities themselves.

Others do it through more sordid ways, selling off clout for riches, faking up news stories – there have been dozens of “famous” journalists who lied and made-up all kinds of stories but who got better media treatment than Paris Hilton.

Journalists, as a profession, are also old. The average age of a journalist is 102.

And according to public opinion surveys, most Americans rank journalists way below used car salesmen, realtors and bill collectors, or salespeople for Orbitz, the online travel ticket company that has left me burning up the past few days.

You know what? I admire Paris for having the strength to serve her 22 days in the pokey.

She’ll come out a far better person than all of the lazy-assed journalists who are hammering her in their columns, broadcast reports and radio commentaries.

You go girl.

And when you come out, make sure that every Hilton Hotel and related hotel chain creates a special surcharge for journalists who stay at their hotels, especially the ones who take the graft, are on the dole and who trade principle for a price.

There’s something innocent about Paris Hilton that the news media hates.

Maybe that’s why I, for one, am cheering her on.

And when she gets out, I hope she writes a book that sells a billion copies, and then buys one of the big newspapers that put her in the spotlight so they can knock her back down. (That’s what journalists do for a living.)

She should then fire each and everyone of those lazy-assed reporters – I like that term, and replace them with young kids with no experience in professional journalism who have only one commitment to fairness and truth. It’s something you rarely find, as a rule, in the journalism profession.

It’s true, as much as I hate to admit that about my own profession.

The truth is journalists, as a profession, have done worse and more offensive things than anything Paris Hilton has ever done.

swnewsherald.com

Wow, simply wow. The only thing it’s missing here is the reasons why fans like Paris Hilton, but this article is a good slam on the media.

Can you believe it? This actually comes from a journalist!

From: J.
Time: June 5, 2007, 2:36 pm

WTF? I really have nothing against Paris Hilton fans, but out of boredom I’ve browsed around and have been stunned to find a tremendous amount of uncritical support for her no matter what she does. She is paying the price for her blatant disregard for the law and public safety. She violated her probation and drove under the influence. Of course THAT doesn’t make her a horrible person, but she has to pay the consequences for her actions. She could have killed or seriously injured a person for what she did. I have friends that have had to go through the exact same punishment for the exact same thing, they deserved it and they didn’t think they were being treated unfairly, they messed up. I have seen The Simple Life, I have read interviews, I have listened to her speak and I’ve come to the same conclusion many “haters” have come to: why does this shallow, narrow-minded, selfish individual have so many admirers? I’m not jealous, I don’t care how much money someone has or how much attention they get. I measure success in life to be based on what a person has done to make a positive impact on a community, the country, or the world. She’s not just hated by the general populace, her behavior and attitude towards people at the parties she attends have caused her to be reviled by other “stars” as well. She’s obviously not a sweet person. If she truly cared about her fans, she wouldn’t have ripped them off with that album she put out. Yes, my girlfriend and I listened to most of it. Our music collection spans over a thousand albums. Hilton’s weak voice has to be propped up by backup singer voices, ProTools (a software program that enhances vocal tracks, among other things) — because there is NO WAY that snobby, stuffy voice can sound good singing, and the fact that whoever wrote the songs ripped off at least one other artist (UB40).
Oh, journalism is actually a highly respected profession…just not the type that focuses on celebrities. It’s journalists and reporters that keep democracy alive by exposing corruption and graft in government and big business. Most of your despised “journalists” never went to an esteemed journalism school based on articles that I’ve read displaying the grammar and vocabulary of an 8th grader. I highly doubt the individual that wrote this article went beyond community college, if even that. It’s because of journalists that “Scooter” Libby is behind bars, it’s because of journalists that “Duke” Cunningham is behind bars, it’s because of journalists that Richard Nixon was impeached — I can’t believe I should inject this but those are all GOOD things. If you have no clue who these people are then you should start paying attention to news that affects you. No, I’m not a journalist, I’m just a regular Joe sick of people putting the Paris Hiltons of the world on a pedestal and ignoring what real women like Eleanor Roosevelt, Maya Angelou, Rosa Parks, Indira Gandhi and many others have done to allow idiots like Hilton to get the publicity she gets.

From: admin
Time: June 5, 2007, 2:47 pm

I guess every Paris fan out there would find your comments very ignorant and offensive (to Paris also).

“she wouldn’t have ripped them off with that album she put out” That makes my blood boil especially when I listen to other singers’ album!

J.,

We can’t reason with you because you are too ignorant, and very wrong by calling Paris “this shallow, narrow-minded, selfish individual”