Where is the news?
An Irish Sunday Tabloid recently carried the following Headline on it’s front page, “Kerry: I’ll die young”. For those of you who don’t know, the Kerry in question is not a figure in Politics, not a Humanitarian,not a film star and not a pop star, not anymore anyway. She is Kerry Katona and had a brief period in a pop band with moderate success, the band, Atomic Kitten, having greater success after her departure. She then Married Brian Mcfadden, whose pop career mirrored hers, their marriage being as brief as their employment in the music industry. Eight years on from her leaving the girl group, Kantona is still in the media on a daily basis. Why? i hear you ask. Is she building hospitals in Mogadishu? is she running for Mayor of London? Is she a serial killer? no, she takes cocaine; well that and is in commercials for frozen food. But that is not all she does, she occasionally eats a kebab while on Holidays, has a row with her former husband, has a row with her current husband, looks fat, looks thin, looks fat again.And if it is not Kerry that is taking up column inches in the tabloids its the ongoing saga of the marriage beak-up of Jordan and Peter Andre. Andre had a pop career briefer than that of Mcfadden and Katona (Praise be). And Jordan, Aka, Katie Price, is famous for, well… getting her tits out.(Lets say it like it is, it ain’t modeling if you are not wearing clothes)These two half-wits met in a Jungle (Katona was also present), fell in love, got matching fake tans and had a Fairy Tale wedding, Fairy Tale in the sense that it was Grimm.But of course like in a scripted soap opera the marriage can’t stay happy forever or your audience will get bored so the script writer/publicist makes up a fictional break up for the fictional marriage. Yes I am still talking About Jordan and Andre. So tweedle double d and tweedle dumb ass are airing their fake tanned stained washing out in public. She is Telling anyone who listens that her new man is better at sex than her old one, he is revealing the details of their marriage through his “music” in a song called “Behind closed doors”. Which is where he should keep his private life if you ask me. Each vile insult and equally vile rebuttal is given excessive column inches in the press for all to see. Did I mention they have kids? Well, they have kids. These Kids don’t hide under the duvet when Mummy and Daddy are having a row, no, they reel in horror when they pass a newsagent or go rigid with terror when they hear Daddy on the radio, mind you, we all do that.So why are these odious Oopa Lumpa/Barbie & Ken hybrids getting more press attention than:Thousands of people being displaced by the conflict on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.or that 1.5 million in Sudan are in need of food aid.or that MEND, Nigeria’s largest terrorist organisation is to end its ceasefire.Well I guess these stories just aren’t very palatable, require too much thinking and self reflection and just don’t sell newspapers.There are other reasons too of course but analysing the filters of Chomsky’s propaganda model is for another time.So for know lets just hope that Katona, Jordan and Andre are put back in the jungle but this time without any cameras or any chance of their plea of “get me out of here” being answered. When a washed up “celebrity” falls in the Jungle… does anyone give a shit?
