Some food for thought about Paris Hilton. I don’t think much about her as a person, one way or the other. She does symbolize what extreme privilege looks like, which is someone interesting. One thing Amanda forgot is that what catapulted Paris Hilton to fame was her sexuality. One sex tape took her from well known party girl to celebrity overnight. As some commenters mentioned, women so often achieve fame through their sexuality, after which they are punished.

The most offensive part of the whole thing, which has been oft discussed, is this insane tabloid journalism. And by tabloid journalism I mean titillating stories of (white) women. If an attractive white woman is murdered (and hopefully raped) somewhere in america it takes over the cable news. This week it is someone named Kelsey Smith, who really got the star treatment by CNN. Last week a 50 year old, non-sexy woman was murdered in Maine by an unidentified assailant. A 16 year old boy was murdered in Miami, possibly in gang related violence. Around 20 young americans dies in Iraq.

Now I understand why the media covers some stories more than others. “man bites dog” is news, as they say. But why is it the murder of a young attractive woman that the media runs with? Is it because those get the best ratings? And if so, why is that? And how can you have a functioning democracy when the source of most people’s news is from someone who reports on what you want to hear, rather than what is?

Pretty funny actually: flickr photos from the creation museum.