Publicity hungry vultures
by Sam Mickell
It didn’t take long for the publicity hungry vultures to start circling following the death of alleged child abuse victim Nia Glassie.
As the New Zealand Herald’s website spouted the other week, “Film stars, sports people, mayoral aspirants and members of the public today gathered outside the hospital where Nia died last Friday and observed a three-minute silence in protest against the child abuse”
Excuse me…but did someone say “mayoral aspirants”?
Unfortunately, it seems that when tragic incidents occur - such as poor Nia’s death– we see a torrent of c-list celebrities, sports stars and political hopefuls jump on the bandwagon in an effort to jumpstart their lagging profiles.
I’m not knocking those with a significant public profile who lend their name to causes that need some publicity. I’m talking about c-list celebrities with no prior record of giving a toss who are suddenly resident experts happy to share their opinion with all and sundry.
Unfortunately, instead of keeping their mouths shut and letting those who are qualified do the talking, they see such tragedies as prime opportunities for shameless self-promotion.
You could be forgiven for thinking some even believe they are serving the public good by adding their five cents’ worth.
Sadly they are not.
Just because someone once competed on Dancing with the Stars – or even worse – once had a fleeting career on Shortland St, doesn’t qualify them as a commentator on such a complicated matter as child abuse.
The blame lies with us
It’s easy to blame the media for even allowing such commentary to be heard in the first place, but isn’t this kind of coverage really just symptomatic of them catering for our endless appetite for celebrity news?
Showing just what a microcosm we are of the wider world, not only do the likes of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie now permeate our evening news bulletins, but we are seeing more and more local examples - such as Matthew Ridge and Rebecca Loos – receiving primetime coverage.
We can criticise media organisations all we like for using celebrity-driven news to sell newspapers or get TV ratings – but doesn’t the fact that this kind of news sells more paper and boosts TV ratings mean the blame lies squarely at our feet?
Or has our society become so sad that we rely on these hammed-up stories about famous-for-nothing morons, just to escape the monotony and blandness of our own daily lives?
What do you think?
The ones that make me wince are those hypocrites in the supermarket queue, flicking through a women’s magazine they probably won’t buy, muttering things like: “God, how can they put this kind of shit in the media?”