Nice Celebrity, Not So Nice Celebrity

There is no denying it, we are addicted to celebrities. Some of these people deserve our attention. Let's face it many politicians, Barak Obama for one, are, at this point, little more than celebrities. However while Obama has demonstrated the ability to excite our imagination n positive ways and possible become a great leader, Paris Hilton, has demonstrated the ability to be, and I quote some forgotten pundit, famous for being famous. She is talentless and boorish, but she has the ability to garner headlines, because of the ability of her publicity people.

Like Paris, some celebrities want headlines. I remember when I was stocking magazines at the bookstore. Cover after cover featured Angelina, Brad and Jennifer. "Oh, " one customer remarked, "It must be terrible to have your life splashed across the headlines like that." I assured her that Jennifer was probably paying someone serious money to make sure she stayed in the headlines, regardless of the personal tragedy. Bad publicity being better than no publicity, celebrities often take what they can get.

Which brings us to today's celebrity, Barry Bonds. Last night in San Francisco Bonds broke Hank Aron's home run record. The Giants lost the game but they got what they really came to see. Their man, Barry "I didn't take Steroid's" Bonds smacked a home run to the deepest part of the park to break the record and cement a place for himself in 'baseball history. Now what that place is we don't know yet because Barry is under investigation for Steroid use.

The question is, what happens if he is charged and found guilty of using illegal drugs to enhance his ability. Would this knowledge nullify his record, starting the inevitable O.J. type controversy. He did it, He didn't do it. White people hate him because he's black, yaddah, yaddah... Or will baseball push this to the back burner, "for the good of the game"

I've met Bud Selig and he seems like a nice enough guy, but don't look for him to be courageous on this or any other controversial decision. He's well aware that's what's good for baseball is what's good for the Television networks and their sponsors. They don't care about fans who, after all pay to sit out in the rain, cold or scolding sun to watch these young men compete.

But Bud may have a problem. The credibility of his sport is vital to it's existence and a few politicians can make real trouble for him and professional baseball. Baseball is the only legal monopoly in our society, if you look past utilities and political parties. If some enterprising politician, with his or her finger to the winds of public opinion decided to make the event an issue, the headlines would follow and we could be in for another round of culture wars.

I can see the headlines, "Presidential Candidate (fill in the blank) takes on Baseball Over Bonds Scandal". That would be the headline from he Murdoch Press. Don't expect the New York Times or The Washington Post to be much kinder.

The point here is that nothing seems to be up or down when it involves a celebrity because of one factor. Some of us identify so closely with these people that any attack on them is taken personally. The idiots that surrounded the stage... sorry... courtroom during the Michael Jackson trials, show us that anyone or anything can become an attraction for lost and lonely people seeking a community that they can latch onto. These unfortunates become attractive to the press and as a result become media surrogates for all of us. They are on the front page and fodder for the "twenty four hour crisis of the moment" media. As the rest of us watch and comment, we begin a tsunami of attention that seems to have a life cycle that some media, not unlike leech's, need for life support.

I think the low point for me was CBS newsman, Bob Schieffer making a tongue in cheek apology for not bidding on the exclusive first interview with one of our media diva's after her release from jail(name excluded on purpose). He had to realize that by even commenting on it he gave the incident credibility it didn't deserve.

This is the kind of air pollution that is hard to stop and I'm not suggesting anything formal be done about it. But I do ask you, who gives this kind of media engine velocity? It's us. It's the reading, watching, blogging public. And I am almost ashamed I even commented on it, because we are the one's that push the accelerator. At no peril to yourselves or your loved ones, Ignore these idiots, please.