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Should the media be giving Paris Hilton so much attention? As long as magazines with Paris on the cover continue to sell and television trivia about Paris has a high viewing audience, we will be inundated by "Paris world."

We've learned everything we ever wanted, or didn't want, to know about Paris Hilton. She's young, she's beautiful, she's rich. She has made some poor choices in her personal and public life. She is prime fodder for the media mill. Her entire persona sells newspapers, magazines and airtime.

Paris Hilton, however, is a figament of our own imaginations and the news media's exaggerated, money driven reporting. By day, Ms. Hilton is a prolific businesswoman with her hand in many financial endeavors, such as her own line of fragrance, a television reality show and various other commercial ventures. By night she is a proverbial party girl, stalked by the paparazzi who make their living selling their pictures and stories to the news media who, in turn, provide us with all the salient details of her supposed existence.

It is unfortunate these media outlets cannot exchange Paris Hilton updates for more information on a consistent basis about Iraq, Afghanistan, genocide in Darfur and other newsworthy happenings in our daily life.

We are a country at war, with our young men and women in harm's way, and yet our front page news concerns the frivolous, and not so frivolous, antics of a young heiress.

When did celebrity watching as a national pasttime infiltrate our nightly news? Have we, the viewing public, conveyed the message that we are more interested in the fun and frolicking of an insignificant debutante than what is happening in our coutry and our world?

The news media responds to popular demand. This is the reason the airwaves are monopolized with the questionable foibles of Paris Hilton and her celebrity counterparts. It is a demonstrated example of supply and demand.

During World War II we were kept abreast of the activity of our patriotic servicemen, not just through serious newsreels, but through entertaining movies and cartoon strips. We were a country at war, and we knew it.

Today, we are at war but that is something happening "over there", seemingly unrelated to our everyday lives. No matter that many of our own friends and neighbors are losing loved ones to the cause in Iraq. We turn a blind eye and deaf ear to the all too infrequent reports of hundreds of soldiers arriving home disabled and the poor condition of the facilities designed to house them and care for them while they recoup from their handicaps and the trauma of war.

If Paris Hilton gets a speeding ticket, however, we are all over that frivolous piece of news.

By modifying our viewing choices; watching legitimate newcasts, and forgoing the celebrity soft core fare, we can send a loud and clear message to the news conglomerates through viewer rating statistics that we are hungry for information on relevant and more significant issues.

Learn more about this author, Carol Gioia.
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