Journalists Awash in Paris Hilton News

Posted on June 11, 2007

Unless you've been on vacation on a desert island for the past couple of weeks, you have no doubt been bombarded with the ubiquitous coverage of Paris Hilton's jail drama. A quick summation for the island-dwellers: she went to county lockup, was released to her home with an ankle monitor, the prosecutor freaked out and hauled her to court and tried to hold the L.A. Sheriff in contempt possibly triggering a constitutional crisis over who has authority over prisoners, the judge ordered her back to jail, she was dragged from the courtroom crying for her mother, now she's in a med facility chatting with Barbara Walters on the phone.

So, why all the media frenzy? asks SignOnSanDiego.com. After all, there is a war on, isn't there? What exactly is so fascinating about Paris Hilton, after all?

Robert J. Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University, told The San Diego Union-Tribune, "At the core, it's what in a less polite era we would have called a freak show. If she lived the lifestyle of Tom Hanks, we would no longer pay attention. But she keeps delivering. It's comic relief, but it's complicated comic relief."

It's really just basic three act theory (we're in Act 2, as of today). The storyline here is easy to understand, the heroine is pretty and the events -- although dramatic -- don't affect most people's lives. The immigration issue is a serious one, being debated by politicians in boring navy blue suits (so, like, not hot). The war is another serious issue with real-world implications that requires intellectual prowess to discuss knowledgably.

We do find it kind of ironic that Paris Hilton, of all people, has become the flash point of yet another very serious issue: the overcrowding of L.A. jails and the constitutional tug of war between the Sheriff's office and the courts, both of which want full control over the types of sentences that prisoners serve. Non-violent offenders such as Paris normally only serve 10% of their sentences to make room for the rapists, murderers and other violent offenders, according to the L.A. Sheriff. But the judge wants her in a cell.

Paris may end up in the history books, after all. One thing's for sure: there are a lot of people in the L.A. justice system writing book proposals right now.