Stanley Meises Commentary

Lucky Ally McBeal, I mean, actress Calista Flockhart. Lucky because the actress is in the employ of Rupert Murdoch, whose media empire has thrown its full weight behind stuffing rumors of her anorexia. Every day, there are stories in Murdoch newspapers, and local Fox TV outlets, and Fox network entertainment news programs, supporting the actress. We've gotten a steady diet of Calista's diet tips. Calista's exercise program. Calista's fashion do's. Calista's neatly packaged private anxieties. The Calista goes on and on.

On the news pages, on the TV pages, in gossip columns, on Murdoch-owned websites... everywhere... there are force-fed features of the skinny actress accompanied by photographs of a vibrant, alive, HEALTHY woman. Compare that to the voracious Murdoch coverage of Princess Di's or Kate Moss' eating disorders.

Calista is lucky- lucky she's not a CBS, NBC or ABC TV star. Those networks don't have the multi-media outlets to cook up such a concerted P.R. campaign, and besides, it's not up their alley. But on the pages and screens of Murdoch-owned media outlets, the other guy's celebrity is often portrayed as a bloated, adulterous, drug-addled ingrate with libertine- and worse, liberal- tendencies.

And woe be to the fatso or miscreant whose ratings are slipping. Just ask Rosie, Roseanne, or Ellen. And surely, the perceived transgressions of non-Fox-employed celebrities are reason enough to ignore their right of privacy, and, given the opportunity, the Murdoch media empire does just that.

But they are no different than any other so-called news-gathering organization these days, one can argue. Yes, that's dismayingly true. But then let's give credit where credit is due: The Murdoch invasion even influenced the National Enquirer to turn away from alien space baby stories and adopt the Australian's down-under ways of celebrity innuendo-gathering....which Murdoch minions have done often by entering, er, in-your-window.

So the Murdoch response to California Governor Pete Wilson's recently passed law- which forbids so-called journalists from entering the private property of celebrities- comes as no great surprise. In print, Murdoch writers have called it "anti-press." "Celebrities," Murdoch's mouthpieces are saying, "You owe us. We made you. We can unmake you."

Steve Dunleavy, a columnist for the Murdoch-owed New York Post, wrote a response to the Wilson bill that neatly sums up the Murdoch philosophy of celebrity. "These people were begging for public approval when they were no one," he wrote, "and now they are screaming about public curiosity. That is what celebrity is all about."

But what happens when celebrities pick up the Murdoch paycheck?

They become the beneficiaries of globally distributed media puff pieces that suffocate rebuttal and effectively acquit them, in Rupert's Kangaroo Court, of any charges, as it has Calista Flockhart. Or, as in the case of Murdoch's own current, impending divorce, which has major, major implications, the story just gets buried.

Now, THAT is what celebrity is all about!!!

Stanley Meises is producer of WNYC Radio's "New York Voices."

On the Mediawith Brian Lehrer airs on Sunday at 4pm and 10pm on Radio New York, AM820.

For past commentaries and weekly rundowns, visit the archive.


on the media
Rupert Watch II
What Celebrity is All About