I just saw a "news" headline on a popular Internet portal site that read: "Britney's wild, weird week." And I'll be damned if I didn't almost click on it. Call it self respect. Call it wanna-be-intellectual snobbery. Call it whatever you want. But I am pleased to say that something stopped me.
That's not to say I haven't clicked on similar headlines before. Just last week I read a gossip-column-style piece about Britney's new surgically enhanced lips. The article quoted anonymous sources such as "a snitchy friend" and used not-so-clever turns of phrase to deride Britney's ongoing spree of public stupidity and humiliation, even picking on her apparent addiction to frozen coffee treats and ice cream. The whole style and substance of it made me as a semi-serious journalist feel severely devalued -- like the credibility of the whole profession pretty much just went down the toilet. More importantly, as a human, I felt dumber for having read it.
So now we're to the point that we need recaps of Britney's blunders. Even when she hasn't done anything newly idiotic or critique-worthy, the "journalists" who follow the Britney beat feel the need to enlighten us with perspective pieces -- as if what the world really needs now is a better understanding of where Britney has been and where she's headed.
Well I've had enough. I'm not saying I'm above reading celebrity news and gossip. But Britney must go away. So I commit, and I hope anyone who reads this will commit with me, to stop clicking on the Britney headlines, even if they're extra salacious.
Vote with your mouse, folks. Boycott Britney news.
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2 comments:
Sign me right up! And welcome back! I feel the same force intervening when I almost feel the urge to click, and I recognize it as snobbery, no question. It guides much of my decision-making, in fact.
YAY!! A new post!
Yeah, the Britney thing is really getting old. It's not that I outright hate her - a few of her songs are guilty pleasures of mine, I admit - or that I think she deserves privacy all the time, since she did sign up for this whole pop star thing. No, I'm sick of the news because I genuinely pity her now. I think she has serious problems, and the whole world collectively laughing at her isn't going to make them any better. She's got kids, for Christ's sake.
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