Ethical Journalists Need to Beware of Cults of Celebrity

 Adonis Fryer

af414219@ohio.edu

Image from Syracuse.com

The most striking reading from this week was the piece titled, "The Media Needs to Look in the Mirror After Harvey Weinstein." The ethical question in this piece isn't merely a dilemma of simply reporting injustice or telling the truth fully, but really, it concerns the ethical problems that have come from the media's worship of celebrities. There are multiple instances of celebrity worship undermining the goals of ethical, truthful journalism.

For example, consider the ethical mess that occurred last year's spring when Chris Cuomo interviewed his brother, Former Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, nine times on his primetime show. This was an egregious waste of CNN"s airtime during a public health crisis and a large break of the basic rules of avoiding conflicts of interest in journalism. However, because both were celebrities, they were allowed to chum it up on national television while Andrew Cuomo was mishandling the pandemic in his state.

While, on the surface, Andrew Cuomo and Harvey Weinstein are strikingly different people, their falls from grace share many similarities. For one, they were both powerful, influential white men whose flaws escaped critical analysis and punditry because of their connections in the media. 

For another, they are both people who received positive media attention before their downfall. Just look at all of the actors who thanked Harvey Weinstein at awards shows, then take a gander at the positive discourse around Cuomo up until his sexual assault allegations came up. Finally, all of that positive talk, just as the article suggests, was muzzled as soon as the allegations came out.

It would simply be too easy to retroactively shame all the journalists and media figures who enabled these false images to grow. No, instead, the practice of journalism needs to evolve to escape the cults of celebrity that actors, athletes, artists, musicians, influencers and other famous figures have created.

To do that, ethical journalists and large publications ought to start appreciating and reporting on the common person more. There are countless profiles written about Rachel Aniston and Kanye West; but how many are written about a local garbage man or doorman on the national scale?

Not many, I'd wager.

The normal, working class person is just as interesting as most any celebrity. But many media organizations, particularly gossip organizations, would never give them the day of day. 

Then, of course, as media organizations give positive coverage to celebrities and its later revealed that said figures were just as bad or ill-behaved as a normal person who'd they already demonize, there's an effort to cover their tracks.

I say no more. 

Ethical journalists need to beware of cults of celebrity. Celebrities ought to be covered like they are an average person, running fast or singing well doesn't change that they are just another citizen. Additionally, normal, hard-working Americans deserve more coverage.