Making stars out of scum
Dude, I’m tellin’ ya……….
One of the things that really grinds my gears is how the media make celebrities out of pure filth. We’re talking about the dregs of society here. Women that ruin political careers. Women that have eight babies putting her own health and the health of every one of the newborns in jeopardy. Criminals that have very likely killed their spouse and/or their children. Women that have ruined high profile marraiges. And let’s not forget all the men that prove to have less integrity than the U.S. court system in these wild affairs.
It’s not enough that we have to put up with no-talent entertainers like Paris Hilton, New York (VH1), Nicole Ritchie, Kevin Federline, and the like. They get their own TV shows, make millions of dollars, and couldn’t get past the first round of America’s Got Talent.
But then the media—-one of the worst scourges on the planet (along with credit cards)—–have to shove people down our throat for weeks at a time, in effect making huge stars of these losers. Everyone from trash-talk hosts like Nancy Grace to legitimate big-name newscasters like Tom Brokaw, Katie Couric, and Matt Lauer perpetuate this feeding frenzy. And much like the steroid case in baseball, NO ONE CARES !!! Nobody I know cares about any of these people that saturate our news. We don’t talk about them at social gatherings. They have no impact on our lives. We know them for what they truly are——some of the worst scum of the earth. They disgust us. We don’t want them to invade our lives any more than they minimally have already.
We’re talking about the women that have done absolutely nothing but spread their legs for a powerful man and now they have a regular income on the lecture circuit and “remember when?” shows. Even the people that finally drifted into relative obscurity get new life thanks to shows like “I Love the ’80s”. I was hoping I’d never hear the names Lorena Bobbitt, Amy Fisher, and Joey Buttofuco again until they resurfaced on that exact program. Thanks MTV for opening old wounds and rubbing some salt in them.
And thanks to the Nancy Graces, and the Jane Velez-Mitchells, and even the Larry Kings, we have a new bumper crop of murderous trash to celebrate for years to come. Scott Peterson may be the valedictorian of the new class. But let’s not forget Drew Peterson (no relation), Casey Anthony, and Joran Van Der Sloot (the Natalee Holloway case). They’re the next batch of “stars” to replace the likes of Richard Ramirez and Andrew Cunanan. Hey, remember Andrew Cunanan? To my dismay, I don’t think I’ll ever forget him. Without people like these to celebrate and take advantage of their heinous activities, Nancy Grace would be back in the prosecuter’s office. Jane Velez-Mitchell might be selling insurance. Larry King might be the host of a gameshow by now like Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
Sometimes these pseudo-journalists can make a whole all-star team of otherwise dismissable drains on society from just one big event. Like the pathetic O.J. Simpson trial. How many celebrities emerged from that cesspool? We have Cato Kaelin, Mark Furhman, Judge Ito, A.C. Cowlings, and the list goes on-an-on. All of these offensive people have their own Wikipedia entries thanks to the murder of two people by a wife-beating former NFL star.
And then there’s the tramps and sluts that became famous simply because they were willing to break up a family and/or ruin an aspiring public service career. Now don’t get me wrong, I blame the man as much as the woman for the indescretion. Perhaps moreso. By no means do I condone the infidelity of the man, and totally cast blame on the woman. What I’m saying is that the man was typically a celebrity already due to his political or preaching career, and then an otherwise invisible woman gets shoved down our throat for 6 months and graces the covers of People, The National Enquirer, and the Globe. This niche includes Monica Lewinsky (Clinton), Donna Rice (Gary Hart), Gennifer Flowers (Clinton again), and Jessica Hahn (Jim Bakker).
Now lately, you don’t even have to bring down a presidency or a man of the pulpit to get rich quick and become a celeb. You just have to pushout 6,7,8 or more children at once. Ignore the safety parameters of in-vitro fertilization and general health guidelines….just roll the dice and if you and the babies survive, Nancy Grace will make you a millionaire !!
I’m always glad to hear Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the US Airways pilot who safely landed his aircraft on the Hudson River, referred to as a hero. Now here is a man who deserves every drop of recognition and lecture fees he can get. This is a man worth celebrating and publicizing. He should be brought out at halftime of the Super Bowl and be given a 5 minute standing ovation. If the media would just focus more on valiant people like Sully, Professor Liviu Librescu–the Holocaust survivor who helped to save the lives of several of his students during the Virginia Tech massacre, or even Oprah Winfrey & Bill Gates whose philanthropic achievements are indisputable……..the media might actually become a noble profession.
Instead, they force-feed the public with never-ending stories of violence, greed, and debauchery and stand on a pedestal and claim that these sordid people are what we all want to hear about. That these miscreants are what we tune in for as a viewing nation. I personally don’t watch the news because it is so negative and full of misinformation. Yet unfortunately, I am still familiar with all of these names and their dirty deeds.
How totally sad, and a major sign of the moral gulley that the United States finds itself in. Good luck climbing out, America.
Will the Media Give it a Rest Already ?
Dude, I’m tellin’ ya…….
Now here’s one of those topics that would have absolutely no legs to it if it weren’t for the media pretending the public has an unquenchable thirst for more discusion. The octomom is a good example. Not one person I know personally ever gave a damn about this woman. No one spoke about it at the water cooler at work. She never came up in after-work conversations at a pub or a restaurant. My family never discussed her story—-even when we were focusing on current events. But the scenes of the media camped outside her house like Jimmy Hoffa was holed up there…….it made me sick. Making another celebrity out of a nobody.
And the topic that I’m talking about today is just like that. It scraped my nerves just a few hours ago as I saw yet another news headline on my email cover page about it. And then I saw it on the headline runner at the bottom of every ESPN channel. What I’m referring to here is the nonsense that is the steroid issue in Major League Baseball. The alleged 104 players who tested positive some years ago. The “tainted” players and their Hall of Fame credentials. Whether the list of the 104 players should be made public. Etc. Etc.
And the thing about it all that makes me laugh is that the media thinks the public gives a rat’s ass and it is a passionate issue among fans. Once and for all ESPN………IT ISN’T !!!! Nobody but you cares. No one. See the lack of interest details mentioned previously about the octomom. Nobody but you guys ever talk about it. And most hilarious of all is that every sports commentator who feigns surprise and incredulity is a hypocrite of the highest order.
Sportswriters, beat writers, TV commentators, and every other niche within sports coverage has been holding up the same wall that began with organized athletics in the United States. Back in the day, the beat writers and newspapermen would be perched on the bar stool right next to the biggest names in sports after that day’s contest. They’d get loaded together. The star of the team might rip the manager or the owner. But it rarely ever—practically never—-made the papers. Players may have started a barroom brawl. Or pissed themselves at 3pm after drinking all night and missing curfew. It’s like the Blue Wall that law enforcement people and the court officers team up to make the justice system a farce. The same teamwork and loyalty to each other applies here.
The writers and TV people have always known the secrets of the sports world. Not that there is anything wrong with being a homosexual, but they know who is gay and who isn’t. They protect those athletes with a laughable (attempted) position of integrity, dedication to the athlete’s privacy, and their own (imagined) personal virtue. They know who is a skirt chaser and is cheating on their wife and family back home. But the media holds up that wall as hard as they can. They know who the problem drinkers are……men (and women) that could really use someone to step in and help. But they have to hold up that wall. To hell with the athlete’s family and their suffering. They have almost a blood oath to keep the darkest secrets of sports just that—–secrets.
And as far as drugs, performance enhancers, and just plain substance abuse goes, the media has known what has been going on for decades. Back in the 1970s, it was common knowledge that bowls full of the “greenies” and “reds” gobbled by then-MLB players were set right out on the pre-game buffet table. Teams and clubhouses didn’t even try to hide things back then. And the beat writers and reporters knew who was a cocaine addict or a chronic marijuana smoker in the 1980s just like they do now. But everyone held up the wall until federal authorities made a major bust involving Willie Wilson, Keith Hernandez, Vida Blue, Willie Mays Aikens, Garry Templeton, and several other stars of the day. Then the media personnel did the same thing they are doing now with the steroids issue.
They drop their jaws in some of the worst acting examples of shock and surprise that you’ll ever see. They shrug their shoulders and claim they never saw anything themselves first-hand. They put their hands up in the air and exclaim they just can’t believe how widespread the situation is. PLEASE !!!!!!! I’d sooner believe Joe Isuzu before them. They are in the locker room every single day. They see these people naked every day. They play golf with them. They get to know their wives and children. They are key ingredients to the entire facade !
So not only are they just as much to blame for steroid abuse as the Commisioner Bud Selig, the team executives who encouraged it and looked the other way, and the players themselves……they keep the issue alive with continuing stories and hack acting about not knowing about it. I blame them all….from Tim McCarver to Jay Mariotti to Chip Cary to Joe Buck to Peter Gammons………right up to the legends like Jack Buck, Vin Scully, and Harry Kallas. You all held up the wall and I will never believe for a second that NOT A SINGLE ONE OF YOU never saw a thing. Never suspected anything. Thought every player was clean as a whistle. Then you are the blindest and most gullible “marks” I’ve ever heard of.
And since you won’t ever ‘fess up about being part of the whole scam on us true sports fans, please just put it to rest already. My friends and I don’t hate Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa one bit more than before their alleged steroid abuse. We hated them when they were rookies. We hated them when they were skinny weaklings. And we hated them when they were bulbous-headed steroid freaks. Nothing has changed. I’m sure they’ve been cheating in one fashion or another since junior high-school (grades, test scores, etc).
So just put the whole sorry subject to rest already. 90% of pro athletes are either druggies, philanderers, alcoholics, or criminals. Let’s talk about something new. Like who is actually loyal to their wife or doesn’t touch anything stronger than milk. They deserve the headlines on ESPN.
The celebrity bennies never end
Dude, I’m tellin’ ya…….
It’s not enough that all these celebrities that get shoved down our throat every day get paid all the money that we are oh-so aware of. We all know a Julia Roberts or a Brad Pitt or a Jim Carrey get $20 million a movie. Or that Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez get $18-24 million dollars a season. Or that Jay-Z or Beyonce make $15-25 million or more per year apiece. That’s not what bothers me at all.
And it doesn’t bother me either that they get these gift bags at all of those self-congratulatory award shows that happen what (?) 15-20 times per year. These bags are stuffed with blackberries and electronics and watches and perfumes and body lotions that would eat up a normal man’s yearly salary. And those gift bags are in addition to the VIP luxury lounge that was realistically portrayed on an episode of the Sopranos a few years back. Remember when Sir Ben Kingsley was invited to roam the room and select various jewelry and other expensive doo-dads because he was friggin’ Ben Kingsley? That sort of thing happens every single day; you can bet the ranch on that.
But that doesn’t bother me too much either.
I don’t even get too upset about the other fringe benefits that are kept even quieter. Like the trips these people can take on the corporate/team jet for free. Or that they get to simply take home their costumes and other props off the set for their own private collections. Or that whether it’s a team clubhouse, or the green room of a TV studio, or an on-location “corner-of-nowhere”….they have a food spread that would feed a third world nation. Or that talentless trash like Paris Hilton or Kevin Federline or even Cato Kaelin can secure “appearance fees” to show up at a party and tie one on for free.
None of that bullshit bothers me too much either.
What really scrapes my nerves is when these celebrities commit the crimes and walk away scot-free. This is what makes most of America believe that law enforcement is crooked and the judicial system is a bad joke. Which it sadly is. At least to law enforcement’s credit, they make the arrests. It is the court system, the judges, and the whole facade that is American justice that really makes me laugh my ass off. I see the Mel Gibsons and the Paris Hiltons and the Ray Lewis’ and the Bernie Madoffs get arrested. But even with the rock-solid “hush-hush” deal that law enforcement has with the courts to hold up the Blue Wall, even the police walk away disappointed in celebrity cases.
Ray Lewis can walk away from a crime in which he exited a limo and a person got his throat cut from ear-to-ear and died. With virtually not even a slap on the wrist. I remember when Allen Iverson was searching for his estranged wife and kicked down an apartment door with a knife tucked in his belt. He hardly received a spanking on that one. Even one of my beloved Chicago Bears–LB Lance Briggs wrecked his Lambourghini and left it on the side of the road and left the scene. Zilcho. How’s Robert Blake doing these days? Tanning beside his tear-dropped shaped pool?
If I, or any of my friends committed these crimes, we’d be playing a harmonica in the slammer. We have spent more nights in jail for driving offenses than all of the forementioned crimes added together.
Just recently another local hero of mine, Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks, was looking at felony charges for assaulting a NYC cab driver. As soon as I saw the headline on ESPN, I laughed my ass off as they indicated how many years Mr. Kane could possibly face if indicted and convicted. I told my roommate sitting next to me, “Every penny I own in this world that he comes out facing misdemeanors and gets a cake walk on that too.”
My roommate wouldn’t take the bet. He knows what a farce the judicial system is. Oh, and Mr. Kane is now only facing misdemeanor charges. Again if that were me, I’d be facing multiple felony charges and my life would effectively be over.
And then there’s the all-time King. Your friend and mine, O.J. Simpson. The man who got away with murder (Ray Lewis anyone?). At least in this case, some of the law boys got together and decided that whether he was littering or jay-walking or disturbing the peace….they were gonna get this SOB. And of course, being a murderous scumbag like he is, O.J. made it easy on everyone. Yes, he’s in jail now. A celebrity was finally convicted. But the man should be on death row and never have had the chance to harass and assault the other people that earned him the penalty he finally got.
But the “rich-and-famous-walk” never ends. Didn’t Halle Berry hit a person in the crosswalk a few years back? Or was that Paula Abdul? Or Lindsay Lohan? Or Britney Spears? Who the hell knows. The only thing we do know is that almost all have gotten the DUI charges or the reckless driving charges and they all get a walk. Me and my buddies get to wash cop cars to fulfill our 40 hours of community service. That’s on top of the fines and the supervision and reinstatement fees and everything else. Russell Crowe can assault people with phones and I get run up the flagpole if I do a rolling stop at a stop sign.
When I think long and hard about the whole thing, there’s only one group in the entire United States that gets more preferential treatment than celebs in the courtroom. And that’s the police themselves. Then the scam is truly on. O.J. Simpson may be one thing, but there’s a group that can literally get away with anything. The Blue Wall holds up nice and tight for them. Beat up 110lbs bartenders in neighborhood pubs (Chicago). Start brawls that involve 6-8 people at pool halls (again, Chicago). That’s why Drew Peterson (Bolingbrook, IL) will walk free in his wide publicized case. He has the perfect combination going for him. He’s half-cop and half-celebrity. With a pedigree like that, he’s got it made in the shade.