The Biebs is back in the news, and I’ve noticed something: the worse he behaves, the more newsworthy he becomes. Or at least that’s what the popular media wants you to believe. This teenage phenom, this PR agents’ worst nightmare is…everywhere. Facebook, TV, radio, Twitter. He’s probably being discussed at your granny’s bridge game right now, for pity’s sake. Just this morning I heard that his concert video “Never Say Never” made seventy-seven million dollars, while his recent “Believe” video has “only” made six million. (Which of course would be enough to feed and clothe the population of several Third World countries, but I digress.) It seems that we, the public, enjoy seeing another human being play the fool. Or do we? Is it just that we’ve been conditioned to pay attention to bad news and disregard good news as "fluff"??
According to those who determine what is newsworthy, happiness is less than riveting and success (depending on the field of endeavour) is worthy of contempt. “Feel-good” stories are maybe worth a few lines while failure is the stuff of endless magazine covers. At least, that’s how it plays out in the media. Now I think most of us are aware that teenage girls love a bad boy, but I don’t think we knew that middle-aged news media editors did, too. Which I find more than a little disturbing, frankly.
While we’re all busy crucifying young Justin, we need to remember that the Biebs is just another dippy nineteen year-old kid, the age where most people are still working at Subway or zoning out on their parents’ couch, playing Xbox 360 till the wee hours. Remember: he’s a kid, a talented one, who started out with nothing but a voice, a guitar and a Youtube video. He became popular before he had his permanent molars, and was vilified by kids and grownups alike as being a “sellout” at the tender age of twelve. What?
My twins are ten and a half, and the idea of them being idolized and/or despised by millions of strangers is inconceivable. Just getting them to take a bath is a challenge. I can only imagine the choices they would make if they were handed everything they wanted from now on, were obliged to work like adults and left to their own devices to while away their spare time. No doubt even they (despite my best parenting efforts) would get to a point where egging neighbour’s houses and racing Lamborghinis at three in the morning might sound like a neat-o plan. What do they say? “Too much of anything is a bad thing”?
And did you hear about Madonna? I’d be surprised if you didn’t. Miz Ciccone goofed up majorly the other day, using the “n” word in a tweet. All I could think when I read that on Facebook was “Oh, Madge, how far you’ve fallen.” She was on the cutting edge of absolutely everything at one point, and now she’s hanging on to fame with a death grip any WWE champ would envy. (And here’s a tip for you, M: once you’re accessories start wearing you (cane, anyone??), it’s time to leave the party. I’m just sayin’.)
My point? Nobody in the media gave a rat’s ass about Madonna (at least, not in comparison to her good old Blonde Ambition days) until she decided the best way to encourage her son as a boxer was to Tweet a racial slur, a ham-handed attempt at sounding hip and happening. Lordy. Prior to that, Madonna was no news: just another wacky artiste in a goofy hat at the Grammies. (I mean, even Pharrell Williams couldn’t pull that one off.) However, once she’d put her foot in her mouth and wiggled her piggies for a while, she was the week’s hot news. According to the media.
Have you noticed, though, that you aren’t hearing anything about Lady Gaga? Where is the drama? All she seems to do is tour, perform and post particularly heartfelt, politically correct comments on Facebook. She’s not out getting drunk and taking a swing at Ri-Ri in some bar in Cannes. She’s not adopting random children from poor countries in order to up her street cred. The woman is making a bazillion dollars a minute, recording catchy new tunes at the speed of light, getting nominated for multiple awards, and she rates barely a line in the tabloids. She is working hard and being successful and apparently, that isn’t worth hearing about. Perhaps if she staggers out of the surf on some beach in Thailand and exposes her naughty bits, we’ll hear about it. But ‘til then, she’s one big yawn. According to the media.
It’s not like I’m Lady G’s biggest fan. I’m just trying to make the point that the media decides what is news, and they decide what isn’t news. And according to the media, right here and now, the misguided adventures of some goofy Canadian kid are worth flogging to death, like so many dead horses. That kid is in trouble, and giving in to the media’s siren song to pay even more attention to him isn’t going to help. So quit with the online petitions to give him to the States. They’ve already got Kanye West and the entire Kardashian family to put up with. Give ‘em a break.
I’ve heard what people are saying: that there was a whole generation of nineteen year-olds who fought and died fighting the Nazis during WWII. That the Biebs is just a spoiled brat, who deserves whatever malice he gets, in the media or otherwise. To some extent I agree with them, but are we really expecting a kid born in 1994 to act the same way as the generation that lived through the Great Depression and came of age during a world war?
Anyways, all that is beside the point: The point IS: Jazzy Justin is NOT newsworthy. We’ve got millions of kids starving and dying in multiple Third World countries. We’ve got a First World filled to the brim with obesity. We’ve got a government that seems completely out of touch with what the average Canadian taxpayer needs. We’ve got polar ice caps melting at the speed of sound, child porn all over the internet and pipelines exploding here, there and everywhere. If the media is determined to focus on bad news, they should at least focus on things that are actually worthy of notice. The antics of one overindulged teen heartthrob are most definitely not.
And that’s something you can “beliebe” in….
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i totally agree!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog.
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