The Media Tries To Make Paris Hilton Look Bad Over Rwanda Trip

I am a bit angry after reading a news item about Paris on CNN.com, which was written by the Associated Press.

BTW, if you visit CNN.com, you will see a headline on the top of the frontpage. I have to mention this every time it happens.

So what was it about? The title of the article is: “Rwanda trip delayed as Paris shops.” What it is subtly trying to say is “look instead of doing charity work, Paris went to Japan to shop and have fun.”

First annoying “mistake” I found is that it starts off with these words “Socialite Paris Hilton.”

But the biggest problem is that the article is written by a careless and ignorant hater. This is the first line: “Socialite Paris Hilton may not be ready to head off to Rwanda to do good deeds, but she was up to judging a beauty contest in Tokyo on Tuesday.”

In an other passage, you can find this: “She had announced plans to do charity work in Rwanda this month for The Playing for Good Foundation, but later decided to postpone that trip.”

Reread that second quote again. What do you think the average reader on CNN.com will think it means? The average read will think that it is Paris Hilton who took the decision to postpone the trip, when in fact, it was the organization, “Playing for Good Foundation”‘s decision to postpone it.

No where in the article you can find the words “restructuring” and “2008.” The trip was postponed until 2008 due to “restructuring” within the organization. Why no mention of this?

The article ends with these phrases: “”I love Tokyo,” Hilton said. “The shopping is great.” Japan has the reigning Miss Universe, Riyo Mori. Mori is the first Japanese to win the pageant since 1959.”

Basically, it ends with the impression that Paris broke her promise and decided to have fun and shop around in other countries. I know it doesn’t like a big deal, but it’s from the AP and it happens often. The writer didn’t plan it to be this way and he/she probably isn’t too hateful. Nowadays, I believe that writers don’t even care what they write about because they know people won’t react the way I do when it’s about Paris. If you think I’m wrong or crazy, let me know.

You can read it here. In other related news, as some of you noted, Paris still hasn’t started one of the major charity works she was talking about. At least 3-4 months have passed since her jail sentence.

From: Sabrinia
Time: November 6, 2007, 6:14 pm

I saw that article earlier today and it also angered me. Like you said it was NOT Paris’ decision to postpone her Africa trip. They are giving out false and misleading information. It just makes them look quite unprofessional that they couldn’t do ANY research (because if they had they would have known it wasn’t Paris but the organization that postponed the trip til a later date). If I could I’d write to the writer because it doesn’t make a person look too good when they don’t do their research. All it would have taken is a quick Google search and within a minute they would have found out, the organization postponed it not Paris.

From: rachel
Time: November 6, 2007, 6:46 pm

It’s hard to get mad with the media re: this story. I mostly saw only the articles on this site regarding her planned Rwanda trip, but she seemed to mention it prominently(newsweek, extra, others) and she received a great deal of positive press from it. Since she didn’t follow through, for whatever reason, it’s probably natural for the press to call her on not going.

Whether it was postponed for restructuring or otherwise, she could’ve taken some of the $$ she made from the Russia trip, Halloween party, and gone to Rwanda herself, if she really wanted to go. Who needs playing for good? She’s been talking about going to Africa for about 2 years and hasn’t made it. Also, if she’s that sincere, there are plenty of other, more established orgs that could arrange the trip, assuming they wanted her.

I don’t completely blame her. She’s never been surrounded by the smartest people, certainly Pr people. How did Mintz keep his job so long? How did her lawyers bungle her dui that badly? That’s part of her problem. However, she’s doing what she wants to do. Even if she doesn’t have time to fulfill her post-jail promises right now, at least make some progress. (publicly)

Take a quick look at this sites’s news archives (october or november december 2003?? some time in there.) and read some of the articles after her sex tape. She says the same things, verbatim, after her sex tape that she did after jail. “Get married in 2 or 3 years.” “She’s tired of partying.” She also followed the same script. Dress conservatively for awhile, say that you’re tired of “partying”, “going out”, avoid the clubs, and then in a couple of weeks/months go back to normal. She’s been claiming that she doesn’t have a boyfriend (so what’s Starvos) and that she doesn’t go out much( I’ve seen a lot of tmz links on this site with her out in Toronto, NYC, Vegas, LA) The “half-truths” only feed into her insincerity issue regarding the charity work. She’s done some good things, but it really doesn’t take a lot to go to a charity fundraiser. Props to her for it, but it’s not exactly a sacrifice. She has, as Colbert might say, a “truthiness” problem.

It’s been about 1/3 of a year since she’s been out of jail. She could’ve done something more substantive re: Breast cancer, halfway houses, africa if she wanted to. I love her entertainment projects, but she doesn’t seem like that sincere of a person sometimes. She may be well-intentioned, but doesn’t follow through much. Sometimes its charity, sometimes its an album tour or other commercial project. We shouldn’t be surprised if the media calls her on it.

She should focus on some “simple” less grand items, such as helping the socal fire victims, or focusing attention on local poverty or children’s issues, and the attendant solutions, in LA.

From: Jen
Time: November 6, 2007, 7:22 pm

Agreed. It would be much smarter for Paris to stick with just one or two projects.
Of course, my guess is that she wants to concentrate on helping children and ,since the Playing for Good Foundation seems to have the same goals, she is trying to work through them.

Also, people in the press forget that Paris does not owe anyone anything and whatever she does voluntarily is no one’s business.
But reporters who work for minor pay and see this wealthy girl tend to get a bit envious,hence the often snide remarks.

My hope for Paris is that 2008 will be a better year for her.

From: rachel
Time: November 6, 2007, 7:49 pm

No kidding. Her 2007 started out with the paris exposed/ storage locker crap and went downhill from there into jail, along with a few other indignities. To be honest, 2006 didn’t seem so great for her either, ending with the Bimbo squad/britney spears stuff, preceded by the straight to dvd movies, etc, Moakler/Barker fiasco. She deserves to have a great New Year’s Eve and hopefully an awesome 2008

From: juju
Time: November 9, 2007, 1:39 am

I don’t think she can or anyone else can just go into Rwanda on their own for charity work. I think you actually do need to be backed by a legal charitble organization.

Anyway, yeah the media does go out of their way to show her in a negative light. Media is so fast now, they don’t care about being accurate, just fast. Also, when all they other outlets are bashing paris or anyone else, it only emboldens this philosophy of going tabloid for ratings. the Hilton last name thing again and again. Yeah, paris could do better, but so could a lot of young stars and they are never treated with the same level of vindictiveness that she is. the attacks on her are very personal.

Ultimately paris doesn’t owe anybody anything in response to what was done to her this summer. That said, i also would like to see her focus on a few things and do them well.

She doesn’t need a new charity start up like Playing for Good to do what she wants to accomplish. She can pick one, gee, like her great-grandfather’s foundation that is more established, professionally managed and secure to work with, then there will be no “restructuring problems” that get in the way again.

But this is so paris. She’s young and like to work with other young people., ie her management, music, PR etc. Personally I think what she really needs is an older more savy managment crowd to help her through the minefields that are endemic in the entertainment and fashion industries.