Anna Nicole Smith “Pop Culture Icon”
By Chuck Hyde, Editor of StandBesideHer.com
Anna Nicole Smith has passed away in her hotel room at the age of 39 of an as of yet an indeterminate cause. It is sad whenever a life is lost, irregardless of how misdirected the life was. It is also sad to note that she left behind a 4 month old daughter. My intention is not to dissect Ms. Smith’s life or how she lived it because that will certainly be done in the media. My concern is the misplaced fascination of the media, and by extension society as a whole, with people like her.
It used to be that a person had to tune into Hard Copy, A Current Affair, or Inside Edition to get the latest news on who was going into rehab, who was dating who, or which underage starlet was the latest to be seen falling down drunk. Now all one has to do is tune into any of the 24 hr news channels to get an endless stream of these mindless stories.
Fox News Channel is a network I have considerable respect for and is my primary source of news. They however have not shown themselves to be above this type of gutter reporting. One instance I remember vividly is when Kobe Bryant was facing charges for rape a few years ago. I know everybody remembers because you could not turn on a news channel without hearing about it. I was watching FNC one day when he was due at the courthouse, not even for the trial itself, it was just a routine legal proceeding. The newscasters were interviewing a US Congressman. They had asked the Congressman a question and interrupted him in mid-sentence to cut away for a shot of Mr. Bryant arriving at the courthouse. I found this to be absolutely disrespectful of the Congressman and at the same time to be incredibly telling about the state of the media in our country. It was not a flattering display.
We are subjected on a daily basis to stories of whether Brittany Spears is in rehab, which one of her children has learned to drive today, and what her deadbeat husband (or is it ex-husband now?) is up to. We hear stories about Paris Hilton’s latest escapades (sorry this is a family oriented site). Finally, a day would not be complete if we did not find out which celebrity was the latest to exploit some poor family in an impoverished country and bribed somebody to adopt a child for a publicity stunt. It seems that it is quickly becoming a sport for them to try to out-adopt each other.
With all of this said though, it is too easy to blame the media. It is not their fault. They are business people with tunnel vision. They just want to make money. I believe that they really don’t care whether Brittany Spears is still married, they just want you, the American viewer to tune in, and you do. The reality is that stories about dysfunctional people are the only ones that sell. We occasionally get a story about a truly good person, someone we would like our children to look up to. The truth is though that these stories don’t have nearly the shelf-life of the Brittany Spears or Anna Nicole Smith stories.
So today we are saddened by a wasted life and an orphaned child. Tomorrow we need to concern ourselves with the passing of respectable media in the US and the lowering of our expectations for our cultural icons. That’s what’s on my mind.
About The Author: Chuck Hyde is editor of StandBesideHer.com. He is also a husband and father of two teenage boys and a younger daughter. His family lives in the northern Midwestern rural United States, where they enjoy camping, fishing, and other outdoor activities together. Chuck is a Registered Nurse in an inner city emergency room and has had a lifelong addiction to politics.
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