Such scandalous news! (Weekend Assignment – on Wednesday – #296)

Karen is scandalized, and wants to know if other Weekend Assignment participants are too:

Weekend Assignment #296: The press and the public always seem to be obsessed with one scandal or another, from Tiger Woods to Balloon Boy. Do you eagerly follow such stories, try to avoid them, or something in between? Does the identity of the celebrity (or would-be celebrity) affect how interested you are?

Extra Credit: Have you ever purchased a supermarket tabloid?

EC first: No, but I’ll read them while waiting in line, just for laughs – or befuddlement. My husband used to pick up the occasional copy of the Weekly World News, but that was really out-and-out fiction as opposed to a gossip sheet (despite their claim to offering “the world’s only reliable news.” And isn’t that supposed to be The Onion, anyway? But I digress…).

In this time of 24-hour news cycles and information overload, it’s awfully hard to avoid hearing about the scandal du jour (and it seems like every jour there’s a new scandal), but after the first few reports, I usually try to. I’m interested in the first few reports, but once the stories move beyond “just the facts” and start digging for overly-intimate details and speculating at random, I tend to start feeling like I really don’t need to know much more about it after all.

My level of interest does tend to vary depending on who’s involved in the scandal; if it’s not someone I’d be interested in without a scandal, I’m less likely to follow the story closely. The nature of the scandal makes a difference, too. People do all sorts of sleazy things, but some of them are less fascinating than others.

To be honest – and willing to embarrass myself – I tend to be more inclined to follow the details of scandals involving politicians than those involving entertainment celebrities. I think that’s because the stakes are higher – someone’s actions have not only altered their personal life, but the consequences for their professional life can be more adverse and have more of a ripple effect. Also, my personal history has given me a rather morbid fascination with stories involving marital infidelity – particularly the way spouses react to it – and the way that appears to play out in political life looks a little more recognizable to me than the way it does in Hollywood.

Still, even in the more interesting cases, I tend to tune out before too long. While there’s certainly an early curiosity, after a while, I just don’t like the way being too interested in these stories makes me feel – about myself. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t appreciate the world being overly invested in my sordid personal business – not that I have any! – so I try to show the same consideration. I’m also aware that I sometimes have a tendency to over-identify and lose track of my boundaries, so I need to stand back in the interest of self-preservation. And besides, while my own life might not be as fascinating, it usually does have enough going on to command the bulk of my attention.

BTW, does anyone read supermarket tabloids any more? (Not that they’d admit it…) Haven’t Perez Hilton and TMZ taken over their turf these days? How closely do you follow the scandals du jour?

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7 comments

  1. I'm not going to lie. I get pulled in once in a while. I love reading the headlines out loud to my wife in the checkout line, much to her chagrin and, sometimes, anger. ("Stop that. No, I don't want to hear any more of that junk."…"No, really, I mean it.") Also I freely admit that the whole Anna Nicole Smith debate had me entranced for days. I watched all the networks on that one. Tiger: not so much. Keeping track, but not faithfully. 🙂

  2. Kathy (Bermudaonion) – I think I used to pay more attention than I do lately. I spend more time reading book blogs than gossip sites :-D!

    Bryan (Unfinishedperson) – My husband and I tend to call each other's attention to the tabloid headlines too, if we're shopping together. And I confess that for some reason, I didn't lose interest in the Anna Nicole thing quite as quickly as I usually do, although I didn't follow it to the extent that you apparently did :-).

  3. The headlines are fun, but no.

    What I still want to know is why anybody thought it was worthwhile to send them Anthrax! All I can figure is it wasn't a native English speaker who thought he/she had found the propaganda engine.

  4. I don't generally seek out tabloid like stories but it's hard to avoid them. Like you and Tall Paul, my husband and I occasionally read each other the headlines–sometimes even the stories, depending–just for a laugh.