Thread: ALIPAC: Could 'Legislating with the Stars' be the future of

Could 'Legislating with the Stars' be the future of news?

September 23, 2007

BY BRIAN DICKERSON

FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

Americans for Legal Immigration (also known as ALIPAC) is a group opposed to anything that would make it easier for illegal immigrants to remain in this country. I don't share its view that undocumented workers are the root of all evil. But I agree heartily with its belief that the problem of illegal immigration deserves at least as much public discussion as, say, the reasons for Britney Spears' fall from slenderness.

So when ALIPAC complained last week that the mainstream news media is so fixated on celebrity news that it has all but ignored an important congressional vote on amnesty for illegal immigrants, I felt the conservative pressure group's pain.

I also admired its reaction to the mainstream news media's misplaced priorities, which was to issue a news release -- apparently fabricated -- that purported to disclose what Spears and other clueless celebrity paragons thought should be done about illegal immigration.

"O.J. SIMPSON AND LINDSAY LOHAN WEIGH IN ON TODAY'S AMNESTY VOTE!" the release e-mailed to journalists trumpeted. (For the record, it said Lohan supported limited amnesty as a way to keep her cocaine supply line from drying up, while Simpson, if I recall correctly, deplored the pending legislation as a distraction from his hunt for ex-wife Nicole's killer.)

Slip-streaming behind the sleaze

The logic of ALIPAC's strategy is in its recognition that the convergence of celebrity and sex (or celebrity and excess) will always trump the convergence of important public policy issues and reasoned debate. The trick is to leverage the former in order to slip a little of the latter down viewers' throats, ideally before the viewers realize what's happening.

I'm not talking about subpoenaing celebrities to testify before congressional subcommittees. I'm talking about hijacking celebrities while they are in the act of committing salacious nonnews in order to communicate real news.

This is a tricky business that could require judges in high-profile trials to suspend the usual rules of evidence:

PLAINTIFF'S LAWYER: All right, Mr. Mayor, now I'd like to get to what you and this unidentified woman were doing in the back of the barbershop at 2 a.m. But before I do, would you describe the likely impact on Detroiters if state legislators suspend revenue-sharing payments to the city?

DEFENSE LAWYER: Objection, your honor! How is that relevant to this trial?

TRIAL JUDGE: Overruled.

That's entertainment

Alternatively, news departments could collaborate with network programmers to develop reality TV shows that combined the element of public policy debate with the element of scantily clad celebrities cavorting in lush tropical landscapes.

On "Supermodel Nation," cover girls could debate the merits of various comprehensive health care plans while crafting their own utopian society in the Seychelles. On "Making Stem Cell Policy with the Stars," well-known entertainers could ask questions of qualified experts while undergoing frequent costume changes.

Of course, this would require serious journalists such as myself to retool, too. But if helping readers understand the important issues of our time means spending long hours on the set with the world's most beautiful cover girls, well, that's a price I'm willing to pay.

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Thanks BRIAN DICKERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!

May you have many super models in your future and please don't forget that ALIPAC made it happen for you.

Dixie

If the American Public were getting the straight facts and the honest truth from the main stream media, I think most everyone would be on board to get involved in their government. But the nightly "news" lulls them into an ignorant stupor, while censoring the truth.
Americans might wake up if the msm shuts down.

Must be doing something right to attract this kind of attention!

Cool. As the man in zeezil's image would say...

"Is naaaaaaice"

Ok, I have to know.
Who told this cat, undocumented workers are the root of all evil?

Originally Posted by GREGAGREATAMERICAN

Ok, I have to know.
Who told this cat, undocumented workers are the root of all evil?

I thought that exact same thing Greg.