Friday 16 May 2008

Holding celebrities to account?

Here on Viewpoint and on TruthSeeker, I do my best to hold politicians, pundits and columnists to account.  I also at least do try and highlight when they get it right too.  But there is a blog out there that aims to point out every famous hypocrite, be they politician or celebrity.

The trouble is, I think they're a little over-zealous with their hypocrisy-hunting.  That or it's a poor excuse to focus on pretty female celebrities, who do seem to be the so-called main offenders according to Deceiver.com.

For instance, a recent post about Heroes cheerleader Hayden Panettiere referenced Murdoch rag The Sun and a story about rumours that Hayden is a lesbian.  Rather than try to deny it, she went completely the other way...

She said: “That’s fine with me. If I’m going to be linked with someone, I could do an affair with Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba or Charlize Theron.

“And Kate Beckinsale is gorgeous. There are so many beautiful girls.”

Well, I can't disagree with her, but I can disagree with Deceiver, and another blog they reference, IDontLikeYouInThatWay.com, who say...

"Her publicists have already tried the Lolita thing, now there are "rumors" that this chick is a lesbian. So basically, they are trying everything they can to turn Panettiere into a sex symbol. In reality, the only thing that might work is a growth spurt and some thigh exercises."

I think that's very unfair, as she is a very sexy looking lady, in a girl next door kinda way.  Deceiver are no better...

"...the only reason she’s obnoxiously propagating this titillating tidbit is that she wants you to picture her making out with women who are way, way hotter than she is, and hope it rubs off on her a little."

Oh come on.  Are you seriously trying to tell me that this a cynical ploy to make her seem sexier?  Kinky Gerlinky has some very sexy pictures of Hayden in a lovely blue dress and thigh high leather boots, and Booted Up has more pictures of Hayden looking very pretty and very sexy in boots.  Boot Lady Teri, who runs the blog and Bootlovers.com, which the blog is associated with, even manages to congratulate Hayden on being a well behaved, decent young lady.

I think she's hot enough to not need any publicist to try and up her hotness.  No, this is much simpler than that.  What Hayden is doing is ending a rumour by not taking it seriously and laughing with it.  And because Hayden has not become the next Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan in the celebrity disaster department, these blogs, like Deceiver, are using every last excuse they can to criticise her and print her pictures.

Sorry, but this is easier to see through than a window!  I don't make a habit of criticising blogs without reason.  After all, most blogs are just ordinary people writing down their opinions, or keeping a diary of events and thoughts, and I'm pretty much the same.  I respect the differences in opinions, with the proviso that there is a factual basis for their opinion.  Opinions just for the sake of opinions is not something I do, and is definitely not something I like other people doing.  But it has to be said, when the truth is that visible, that obvious, and so well established by many other celebrities over the years doing the exact same thing, dismissing a rumour by laughing with it, you've gotta wonder whether the writer of that blog post has an ulterior agenda at work, and I strongly believe they do.

Like most tabloids and celeb-obsessed magazines, these celeb-obsessed blogs are looking for any excuse, however flimsy, to highlight certain celebrities, because they believe, rightly or wrongly, that covering those celebrities will get them readers.  I do understand that certain stories will get readers flocking to a blog, I experienced that myself with the recent Austrian Incest case, which brought more readers onto the blog than ever before.  But unlike the celebrity obsessive blogs, I look for the stories I want to cover, and if that means I get plenty of readers clicking through to the blog, even better.

Deceiver by name, and deceiver by nature.  Deceiver.com flatters to deceive.

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