Every morning at 8:30am the journalism professor would ask us to bring up interesting stories from the past 24 hours. Today, Anthony Bourdain died and the Beckhams were falsely rumoured to be planning a divorce. This got me thinking: is entertainment news actually news?
I was fascinated by late president John F. Kennedy’s speeches when I was in Berlin for his expertly crafted speeches, especially his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech made on the Berlin Wall. Him and Winston Churchill, the two leaders I admire most for their penmanship. Kennedy gave a speech at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City to the American Newspaper Publishers Association in 1961. In that address, he outlines the relationship between the press, the government, the people, and the First Amendment.
Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed–and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment– the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution- -not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply “give the public what it wants”–but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion. ~ John F. Kennedy (you can read the full speech here)
According to Kennedy, the primary goal of the press is to keep its audience fully informed and educated of important current issues and encourage to public to challenge those in power with controversies. Entertainment news has the primary goal to amuse and entertain, but does not usually provide vital information, or mould public opinion in times of crises. I’d argue that the death of the Queen Mother is a lot more significant to the world than the death of Kate Spade, the Queen Mother having been the former ruler of the vase British Empire. I’d also like to believe that the scandal between Clinton and Lewinsky is more significant to the world than the divorce of a celebrity.
“Printing, gunpowder, and the nautical compass…have altered the face and state of the world.” ~ Francis Bacon
Yes, entertainment news qualifies as news, but only in its secondary or tertiary function. The media’s primary duty is still “to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.” If I only had ten minutes a day to read the news, I’d skip entertainment news; but if I had an hour, I might read up on gossip for ten minutes.
