Rogue Reporting

Politicians and celebrities have been using the media since its conception as a tool to advance their agendas and careers. Part of this equilibrium has been the fact that sometimes gossip magazines and other trash rags publish stories which are completely fabricated. In other words, publishing quotes of words never spoken from interviews that did not take place. I think it is perfectly understandable when the misquoted individuals get upset by such fabrications.

However, what’s interesting to me is how the 21st century well-knowns, whose claims to celebrity are often based on questionable accomplishments, tend to resort to blaming “the media” collectively for presenting them in a negative light.

Two excellent examples of this alleged mistreatment in the public eye are former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, and former Miss California 2009, Carrie Prejean.

Both of these geniuses have thoroughly whored themselves out to the spotlight at practically every possible opportunity, and yet criticized “the media” for making them look bad.

The problem is not with these notables being misquoted; they are taking issue with the fact that “the media” is printing quotes from them verbatim, which makes them sound, well, not good.

Someone should have been ready with the spin machine when Sarah Palin justified her familiarity with foreign policy with the president of Russia flying through Alaska’s airspace, or when she talked about White House’s “Department of Law” – which does not exist.

Similarly, no one was doing damage control in the newsrooms when Carrie Prejean opened her mouth again and again about her disapproval of gay marriage. The backlash she has received has had perhaps less to do with her comment itself (although it wasn’t a big hit among the nation’s LGBT community), and more with the public clash between her “good, Christian, Republican girl” image and the semi-nude photos and the alleged masturbation tape that have surfaced – both of which were created when she was still 17 years old.

Probably the fact that the production company behind the Miss California pageant paid for her breast implants did not improve her wholesome image.

In an appearance on Larry King Live last night, Prejean flashed a big fake grin and pulled out a copy of her new book, Still Standing, within seconds of being introduced. When asked about her motivation for settling out of court on a civil suit with her former production company, Prejean tore her microphone off after accusing Larry King of being “inappropriate” with his questions.

Prejean kept referring to a non-disclosure clause in her settlement agreement, yet King’s question was simply about what motivated her to settle, and not about any specifics of the settlement. There were so many ways to answer the question politely and be done with it, but I guess in the heat of the moment Prejean did not have a scripted response ready, and so she had to pull out the old and worn-out “media is being mean” card.

Her tantrum made it appear obvious that she was on Larry King Live just for the purpose of advertising her book. Perhaps she misunderstood the subtle differences between an interview and an infomercial.

It is true that sometimes there is a political agenda behind what a newspaper or a television network chooses to report and how it goes about reporting it; just look at Fox News. But if “the media” makes you look like an idiot just by quoting things you actually said, perhaps “the media” isn’t the problem.

Tagged as: Celebrities, Media, Palin, politics, Prejean, Television