Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: CELEBRITY DRUG SHOCK NEWS! AGAIN.

nzlemming

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:58:41 +1300

IMO it’s part and parcel of the same deeply exploitative, harmful and toxic media culture.

I'm with you on that.

Sofie Bribiesca

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:47:26 +1300

Readallaboutit!

Surely, back in the day, (when the printing press was just about to arrive) gossip was relied on. Chinese whispers was the end product of the horsemen bearing news from town to town. Stage coach would have brought news between towns. That mostly must have all been misheard or…

Biobbs

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:58:01 +1300

Also, is tabloidism largely unique to English-speaking nations? Or is it just a case of the language barrier preventing us from hearing about non-Anglo tabloidism?
It's everywhere. Every European country has them, at least, and the style is identical. Immigrant bashing is particularly popular. Maybe not to the same degree,…

Chris Waugh

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:39:43 +1300

Also, is tabloidism largely unique to English-speaking nations? Or is it just a case of the language barrier preventing us from hearing about non-Anglo tabloidism?

Oh, there's just as much tabloid nonsense in Chinese as in English, even entirely fake newspapers that have announced the death of Andy Lau (whose…

Ian Dalziel

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:53:14 +1300

makepeace thackeraygun zzzap!
Vanity publishing…

Also, is tabloidism largely unique to English-speaking nations?
there was always the adventures of the three pamphleteers…
and other light entertainment from libelles epoch

Kumara Republic

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:30:47 +1300

It’s too convenient to say “Kill Rupert Murdoch and all his works, then all things will be well”; and it would be wonderful if it was that simple. Unfortunately, it isn’t.

I'd say Rupert Murdoch is both a symptom and a cause of this state of affairs. He doesn't have…

Ian Dalziel

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:30:44 +1300

Archibald Alexander Leach swears by LSD!
Before the Beatles, Timothy Leary, and Carlos Castaneda, LSD was the drug of choice for a rarefied circle of glamorous elites who ingested it as part of their psychiatric therapy sessions. We’re talking about people as famous and diverse as aquatic actress Esther Williams,…

Ian Dalziel

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:14:50 +1300

Wuxtra! Wuxtra! Readallaboutit!
and then there were the scandal sheets of the 18th century...
With its erudite celebrity dish and insider's tone, the Spectator was aimed at middle-class readers who used it as a cheat sheet to ingratiate themselves into high society, as well as upper-class types eager to make sure…

Craig Ranapia

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:55:49 +1300

Rupe is the problem; or perhaps its the people who buy his products that are the problem.

A LOT from both columns there. A shit is a shit is a shit, as Gertrude Stein might put it. At least you can see the upfront and shameless ones coming. It’s the…

Craig Ranapia

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:44:42 +1300

Huh? Really? Vanity Fair? Are you quite sure about that? Because that description doesn’t make any sense to at all to me.

Oh, come on – it isn’t just been Annie Lebowitz covers and celebrity hand-jobs profiles that shift Vanity Fair. Plenty of salacious stories about drugging, drinking, screwing and…

Chris Waugh

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:11:05 +1300

Rupe is the problem; or perhaps its the people who buy his products that are the problem.

Chicken and egg. I doubt there'd be much demand for celeb gossip if the media were all high-minded and intellectual, or at least serious about their role in Keeping the Bastards in Power…

Joe Wylie

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:18:52 +1300

JFK had used [edit: LSD] while President
Do you have a theory about who killed Kennedy?
No.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3ZNidzWLIQ

Hebe

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:06:13 +1300

And Vanity Fair is a big part of the problem.You've lost me. Vanity fair is variable in the "quality" of its subjects — but it's always a well-written and slick piece of work. Rupe is the problem; or perhaps its the people who buy his products that are the problem.…

Russell Brown

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:01:45 +1300

I read a piece linked on my fb wall today (searching …) available here that mentioned JFK had used [edit: LSD] while President. Had not previously heard that.

It appears to be the case. Leary alluded to it more than once.

But JFK pretty much rattled when he walked --…

Sigmundz

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:01:26 +1300

Didn't the msm recently run wall-to-wall coverage when Steve Jobs tragically succumbed to his cancer?

Houston died at 48 and Jobs at 56. Way too young. Perhaps this is what creates the huge interest which in turn drives the coverage.

Russell Brown

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:58:42 +1300

nd Vanity Fair is a big part of the problem. Having Christopher Hitchens on the masthead was pretty impressive window-dressing for a magazine whose stock in trade is wallowing in human misery and degradation while pretending to be awfully concerned about it all.

Huh? Really? Vanity Fair? Are you quite…

chris

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:28:21 +1300

Whitney Spears died? damn, I loved that show.

Hopefully not too tangentially..

This article mentions a movement to ban smoking outside bars. 'One drug town' fundamentalism does little to reflect the comparative harmfulness of alcohol. Less punters in or around the bars is economically regressive, it doesn't adequately reflect the…

Craig Ranapia

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:06:44 +1300

And Vanity Fair is a big part of the problem. Having Christopher Hitchens on the masthead was pretty impressive window-dressing for a magazine whose stock in trade is wallowing in human misery and degradation while pretending to be awfully concerned about it all. Feh… For all his sins, at least…

Hebe

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:28:35 +1300

I read somewhere, probably a Vanity Fair or similar, that the Kennedys could muster up a football team each of recoveries and non-recoveries at family gatherings.

Craig Ranapia

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:27:32 +1300

I’ll introduce you to Chris too – he’s a nice guy…. for an alcoholic.

I'm faintly surprised any member of the Kennedy family is at all functional. I had enough of a time getting sober and staying there, without being part of an extended family that's been soaking in the…

Ian Dalziel

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:06:55 +1300

what a long strange trip...
LSD – was he in with the Tim Leary lot?
well he was 'in' with Mary Pinchot/Meyer who was in with all sorts of people including the Kennedys, CIA head honchos, and Leary amongst others. she was assassinated in Washington in 1964.

Graeme Edgeler

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:31:20 +1300

That said LSD.

So it did.

Rich of Observationz

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:24:42 +1300

That said LSD. Ecstasy didn't become widely used until the 80's.

Hebe

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:17:27 +1300

LSD — was he in with the Tim Leary lot?

Graeme Edgeler

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:05:59 +1300

I read a piece linked on my fb wall today (searching …) available here that mentioned JFK had used [edit: LSD] while President. Had not previously heard that.

Hebe

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:03:41 +1300

None of whom, of course, had been available to Whitney the night before when she was drowning in her bath or in the years before. Yes. Rancid people.

Hebe

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:01:19 +1300

Sometimes, people are just getting high and having fun; what exactly are you treating there?A fine way to pass the time. Treatment is only needed when it turns from getting high and having fun to getting high to be able to do everyday life. Stopping is not the core; but…

Ross Bell

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:00:20 +1300

Hi Craig – not sure if you're planning on it, but it would be great to see you at the taping. I've been meaning to make contact with you for a while. I'll introduce you to Chris too – he's a nice guy.... for an alcoholic.

Geoff Lealand

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:00:15 +1300

One of the smartest investigations of the celebrity phenomenon is Graeme Turner's Understanding Celebrity (Sage, 2004). Graeme, who is at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies at the Univ of Queensland, is updating his book currently as Understanding Celebrity Revisited

Simon Grigg

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:56:19 +1300

I was in a house (not mine) where CNN was playing in the background. They ran wall to wall Whitney for the best part of three hours (at which time our host turned the TV off).

After Piers Morgan had finished equating Whitney, more or less, with The Beatles, Spector,…

Craig Ranapia

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:42:39 +1300

I can't find the link again, but there was a delightfully pompous piece in The Age decrying how awful people are on the internet. Maybe there's a point there, but when the Australian media seem obsessed with concern trolling drunken football players and bed-hopping soap actors? (Surprise! adolescents with too…

Ian Dalziel

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:33:23 +1300

waiting to exhale...
Whitney Houston's death was sad, if not unpredictable or unexpected, but I fail to see how it justified the entire front page of The Press World Section and at least another page since...
It is as if the media having, undoubtedly, added to the pressures in her…

Craig Ranapia

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:18:47 +1300

I don't see how dying in her bath was her way of giving permission.

That's not what Russell was saying. But hell, if a washed-up pop star with a drug problem (and allegedly leaving her estate owing millions of dollars in advances) could find a way to peg out more…

Phil fryer

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:18:21 +1300

I'm more with Bill Hicks on this issue,but could be there wednite !

Russell Brown

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:04:37 +1300

I don’t see how dying in her bath was her way of giving permission.

I wasn't saying it was good or right.

Tamara

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:57:08 +1300

I don't see how dying in her bath was her way of giving permission. I've been staying right away from coverage of all this.

Public Address

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:57:08 +1300

Discussion from blog post.