by Frederick A. Babb

Created on: March 30, 2008   Last Updated: March 30, 2010

Paris Hilton is the poster child of what is wrong in the news media and entertainment industry today. She represents everything which has poisoned both trades. No talent, no skills, no abilities, yet making money hand or fist for being the heir of a successful businessman while being nothing more than a glorified call girl.

Just as recently as the end of March 2008, Paris declared she was a role model for young ladies. These are the words of a lady whose greatest claims to fame are a sex video of her with an ex-boyfriend and spending three weeks in jail for drunk driving. Now she stands to walk all the way to the bank for endangering lives while driving drunk. Just exactly what type of a role model does she want the young ladies to have? Does she really think that glamorizing breaking the law is the acts of a role model? Clearly Paris needs professional help; but I am sure she would just turn that into a sideshow circus as well.

To Paris' defence, the old rule of thumb that it takes two to tango adds up to three in her case. Paris is one third of the equation in this distressing success story. The news media and the viewing public hold ownership to the other two thirds. Let's examine this by steps.

First, if the viewing public rejected the stories of this lady and rejected anything she was associated with, there would be no demand for her to be on the news or invited half way around the world to be a judge, of all things, in a beauty pageant in a country like Turkey that still lacks full respect of ladies as equals.

Second, if the news media and the entertainment industry had any morals, they would pull the plug on Paris and all those just as useless as Paris immediately. There is no longer such a thing as "quality programming" in the news media nor scruples on what they determine as news worthy. With war drums beating around the world and an economic crisis looming in the horizon, there is surely more news worthy stories to concentrate on. But, because the viewing public tunes in for the latest on Paris, the news media renounces their responsibilities of broadcasting authentic news stories.

And finally, Paris needs to take an honest look at her true self-worth. Can she look at herself in the mirror and fully understand why her grandfather, Barron Hilton, decided to donate 97 percent of his $2.3 billion wealth to charity. Barron Hilton, being a sharp businessman, is also intelligent enough in realizing through the most difficult of decisions, that his granddaughter is completely useless and unworthy of such wealth. I am sure it was a decision that was painful to make, but in the end the correct one.

Paris, however, will not have to evaluate her grandfather's wisdom as long as companies like NBC are willing to continue to fill her bank account to keep the public informed on her pathetic life. This is truly a sad reflection on society today.

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