‘Has Our Media No Decency?’
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Poor Shashi Tharoor. We live in a celebrity zeitgeist. In these times of instant gratification, it’s not really difficult to find personal information or photos about those in the public eye. Searching for information is as easy as cooking the 2 minute noodle pack. Enter keywords. Hit Search. There you have it.– this quote was brought to you by quoteurl
When Portugal and Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo became a father recently, it fuelled intense media interest. Reporters were desperate to break the identity of the baby’s mother. Ronaldo confronted journalists camping outside his property in Algarve, southern Portugal.
Any media is laced with a heady concoction of celebrity news. We are faced with inordinate celebrity news, multiplying, intensifying and taking on genuine news, head-to-head. There’s no Bollywood’s most-hated website/tabloid as yet, a la celebrity-basher Perez Hilton’s weblog. The channels named by Shashi Tharoor come darn close. Whether it likes it or not, the public knows more about Rahul –Dimpy’s pati patni issues or what Sakshi Rawat cooks for M S Dhoni, than about most political issues. Poor celebrities.
Why do the media deliberately transgress on personal lives of public figures? One part of it is the ‘unmasking’ of those that are hypocritical. They use their public image to amass goodwill and wealth, when private lives are another story. Take supermodel Naomi Campbell’s run-in with UK tabloid ‘Daily Mirror’ in 2001. The ‘Mirror’ had splashed Naomi’s images as she was leaving the Narcotics Anonymous in London. Naomi took the tabloid to court saying she was traumatised by the use of private images. The ‘Daily Mirror’ hit back when in the same week when she was traumatised, Naomi Campbell held a lavish party to launch her perfume. In 2004, Naomi Campbell has won her breach of confidentiality claim against the ‘Daily Mirror’.
Commenting on the judgment, ‘Daily Mirror’ editor Piers Morgan said in a report on the BBC website:
This is a very good day for lying drug-abusing prima donnas who want to have their cake with the media, and the right to then shamelessly guzzle it with their Cristal champagne.He had a point. While the media often displays insensitivity into delving into someone’s personal life, sometimes even in the guise of freedom of the Press and democracy, some celebrities indulge in shameless self publicity when it suits them. They will cry ‘FOUL’ when the media uses the same leeway to report or uncover what doesn’t suit them.
Five senior judges found for the ‘Mirror’ throughout the various hearings in this case, four for Naomi Campbell. Yet she wins.
If ever there was a less deserving case for creating what is effectively a back door privacy law it would be Ms Campbell, but that’s showbiz.
Look at politicians and film stars (the two major classes of celebrities in this country). They can’t stay away from the media when a film is due to release or when elections approach. There’s no stopping either from running pell-mell to the media. We follow every move of celebrities or those in the public eye. It’s mesmerising to watch the spectacle of money and influence which as ordinary people, we don’t have.
It’s part of our celebrity culture, the way we live vicariously through others. But they live through us too. The caveat – only when it suits them. So who’s manipulating who here? Shashi Tharoor may crib about the cameras following him, but he doesn’t look too upset in any of the footage.
So, till the next celebrity wedding, poor Shashi Tharoor.
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