Newsworthy?

I just checked CNN.com (www.cnn.com) and was sadly un-shocked to find a news story about Britney Spears in their “top stories” category. Along with “Sinead O'Connor to Oprah: I feel for Britney”(http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/04/people.sinead.oconnor.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch) were stories of Halle Berry’s interest in having a second child and news of cats in toilets and just in case we didn’t get enough of her, Britney Spears appears a second time on the home page with news that her first single is a smash hit. Well done Britney, shame on you CNN. Websites like CNN, ABCnews and Foxnews are all giving in to the hype of popular culture. They are selling out for the sake of ratings instead of sticking to the hard news that we come to them for. When I want to read about Britney’s exploits or other equally salacious and shallow gossip I visit Perez Hilton’s website (www.perezhilton.com). Everything you want to know about celebrities can be found there, even things you didn’t want to know. When I want to learn about the developments of our world I go to sites like CNN. I rely on them to keep me well informed and up to date on the relevant issues we are dealing with in America and around the globe.

Popular culture is taking over. Everywhere I turned it seems like I can’t escape stories of Paris Hiltons missing dogs or pseudo celebrity reality TV stars fighting over whom is more talented. And what’s most disturbing about all of this nonsense being thrown at us is that we are actually listening. We have websites, TV shows and radio programs all dedicated to keeping us up to date on whether those pictures of Vanessa Hudgens (one of the actresses in High School Musical, a Disney Channel Movie) are real or photo shopped. They’re real, just in case you hadn’t heard. It’s easier for me to find out about the sexual orientation of obscure reality TV stars than it is for me to get a list of the bills that we are voting on in congress. When you try to youtube George Bush speeches, the first things that pop up are all parodies.

Taking a step back from popular culture and its overwhelming influence I would like to look at the people writing the posts and articles that we read; the public intellectuals. Stephen Mack recently posted a blog about the state of public intellectuals in our modern world. In his post, “The ‘Decline’ of Public Intellectuals?” (http://www.stephenmack.com/blog/archives/2007/08/index.html) on August 14 he discussed the differing beliefs on the decline of the public intellectual. Some figures, like John Donatich believe that we are taking the topic of the public intellectual too seriously. By worrying about its place in society we are creating something to be worried about. It’s like when you are about to give a speech in front of a crowd and someone with the best of intentions tells you good luck, because they would be really nervous if they were you. No matter how much you try not to let it affect you their words do have an impact. Suddenly you are nervous because someone told you that you should be. By thinking about the position of public intellectuals we are bringing it up to be analyzed and criticized. In a realm where analysis and criticism are welcomed and freely given this shouldn’t come as too much of a burden, however the problem arises when people begin to over think the issue. Later in Mack’s post he sites Richard Posner’s book, “Public Intellectual: a Study of Decline.” If ever a man were too critical I think it could be Posner. He criticizes a great number of intellectuals and proclaims that the arts and humanities should be taken out of “public intellectualdom.” He also has the audacity to rank public intellectuals as if they were Maxim’s hot 100. This over-critique is detrimental to the plight of public intellectuals. They should be sharing knowledge and inspiring passionate debate, not competing for the number one spot. The important part to remember is that it is a good thing that we have people out there writing and expressing their views in a public forum.

I feel like the whole point is being missed. Its not about who is writing the piece, it is about who is reading it. There are probably millions of blogs out there in cyber space and each one of them could be written by the next brilliant thinker of our time, but it doesn’t matter what he or she says if no one is reading it. That’s why it is so frustrating to me when I see sites like CNN.coom, ABCnews.com or Foxnews.com wasting valuable space and time on stories about Britney Spears. They have all of this power at their fingertips to be the informant for the masses, so they should use it wisely. Don’t cater to popular culture; rise above it. Prove that what is happening in Iraq and with our upcoming presidential election is more important than whether Britney’s extensions are real or synthetic; because they are.

“With great power comes great responsibility.”