Posted by William Neikirk at 6:04 a.m. CST
The Anna Nicole Smith story came along at a time when most Americans were focused on more important matters–the Iraqi war, the Iranian nuclear weapons controversy, and the budding presidential campaign
Yet when “serious” people were tuning out oppressive tabloid-style coverage of her death, a significant portion of the American population couldn’t get enough of it. Roughly a third of the population followed the Smith story closely, according to the Pew Research Center.
And they gave the press (and by this we mean mostly cable television) high marks for their coverage, even higher than coverage of Iraq, Iran, and the presidential candidates racing around the country in search of donors.
How can this be? A tabloid queen’s sad ending captivating so many people? “Serious” people reacting with horror as cable TV, shamelessly in search of an audience that is at most times puny, pandering to our worst tastes? Is this another sign of the fall and decline of civilization?
But if we put away our pretensions, we all have to admit it was, and still is, quite a story—a story about a hustling woman making a living in a hustling country that values hustle and excellent marketing. She was sexy and outrageous, and she used her assets to get ahead.
Isn’t that what they do on Wall Street, in business, and in politics? The Pew Research’s polling numbers reflect that a significant proportion of the population find profound fascination with such stories for a reason. It is a part of our own story as a country.
“Among the 35 percent of Americans who followed the Smith story closely, fully two-thirds rate the press coverage as excellent (32 percent) or good (34 percent,” said the Pew Research Center. “Only 13 percent say the press has done a poor job in covering the story.”
This was a story that Democrats and Republicans could read and watch without getting into a partisan brawl. One criticism is that such stories drown out other worthwhile stories and information Americans might need to know.
And then there is the concern that some people could tell you every detail about Anna Nicole Smith’s life but not be able to find Iran or Iraq on the map.
