the perils of pop culture

I defy you to flip through the so-called "news" channels and watch for 15 minutes without being barraged with dare I say: stupid details about anything having to do with Paris Hilton
Please anchormen and women do not continue to insult my intelligence with this nonsense
I fail to see how documenting every move Ms. Hilton makes whilst behind those fabulous bars contributes anyting to society as a whole.

Which brings me to my extreme distate for her and everything she stands for....which incidently isn't anything.
She's hot- but from what I hear from those who have seen the tape, she doesn't appear to be a good lay
She's rich- but doesn't use her wealth to pay for useful things, like a driver when her license is suspended
She's famous- but does not have the respect of anyone in the western hemisphere (i'm sure Asians love her, which doesn't say much, they also love anime and Gwen Stefani)

Either way, it is her god-given right to be as useless, selfish, and tasteless as she wants to be.
So who is to blame that she pervades our media?

We are America.
Don't look at me like that, it's true.

I read in a newspaper, when Nancy Pelosi became the first woman speaker of the house, that some shamefully small number of Americans knew who she was compared to the overwhelming percentage that knew who Paris was.

this was back when I read USA Today which explains the prescence of such a retarded poll
sidenote: if you read USA Today, although you are one step above the uniformed dribbling idiots roaming around the country, I regret to inform you that it is not a real newspaper.
I would personally recommend the Wall Street Journal- the damn thing takes a long ass time to get through because there's no pretty pictures and fun graphs, it's serious meat

But back to what I was saying:
I am ashamed to call myself a journalism minor.
What happened to the days of Woodward and Bernstein? Of New York Times v. Sullivan? Of the media serving as a government watchdog? Of the news actually broadcasting and printing NEWS?

But I guess this is what we care about.

Maybe Madonna was onto something by not letting her kids watch t.v.