Kurt Anderson has no beef
Kurt Anderson has an essay in New York magazine entitled, “Celebrity Death Watch.” The subhead says, “Could the country?s insane fame fixation maybe, finally?fingers crossed?be coming to an end? One hopeful sign: Paris Hilton.” Intrigued, I read the first paragraph: On a scale of one to ten, one being the least possible interest in famous ...
Kurt Anderson has an essay in New York magazine entitled, "Celebrity Death Watch." The subhead says, "Could the country?s insane fame fixation maybe, finally?fingers crossed?be coming to an end? One hopeful sign: Paris Hilton." Intrigued, I read the first paragraph: On a scale of one to ten, one being the least possible interest in famous entertainers qua famous entertainers, and ten being the most, I?m about a six. Until I recently gorged for days on end, it had been years since I had touched a copy of People or Us Weekly. I skipped the Tonys and Grammys and Emmys. But I do skim three or four New York newspaper gossip columns most weekdays, and I watched E!?s Golden Globes red-carpet preshow, and, of course, I tuned in to the Academy Awards telecast. For years, I?ve thought that the intense fascination with famous people must be about to end?and I?ve been repeatedly, egregiously mistaken. But now?truly, finally?I believe that we are at the apogee, the zenith, the plateau, the top of the market. After 30 years, this cycle of American celebrity mania has peaked. I think. I hope. So I read on, eager to see what evidence Anderson had compiled to support his argument. But it wasn't until the third-from-the-last paragraph that I found the evidence, such as it is: The Nielsen ratings for this year?s Oscars were down 8 percent, and for the Grammys 11 percent. During the last half of 2005, the Enquirer?s newsstand sales were down by a quarter and Entertainment Weekly?s by 30 percent. The American OK! is said to be unwell, the magazine Inside TV was launched and killed last year, and a magazine called Star Shop was killed before it launched. That's it???!!! Good Lord, this kind of evidentiary base makes the Israel Lobby argument look like top-notch social science!! Even the facts that Anderson presents are bogus. Declining newsstand sales of some celerity mags are meaningless, because of the proliferation of other celebrity mags, like In Touch, Us Weekly, and In Style. Failed magazines are meaningless, since new magazines fail most of the time anyway. Oscar ratings, like Super Bowl ratings, have experienced a secular decline in recent years. And to my knowledge no one has ever cared about the Grammys. I look forward with bated breath to Anderson's future proclamations of the death of blogs (I beat him to that!!) and why porn has jumped the shark.
Kurt Anderson has an essay in New York magazine entitled, “Celebrity Death Watch.” The subhead says, “Could the country?s insane fame fixation maybe, finally?fingers crossed?be coming to an end? One hopeful sign: Paris Hilton.” Intrigued, I read the first paragraph:
On a scale of one to ten, one being the least possible interest in famous entertainers qua famous entertainers, and ten being the most, I?m about a six. Until I recently gorged for days on end, it had been years since I had touched a copy of People or Us Weekly. I skipped the Tonys and Grammys and Emmys. But I do skim three or four New York newspaper gossip columns most weekdays, and I watched E!?s Golden Globes red-carpet preshow, and, of course, I tuned in to the Academy Awards telecast. For years, I?ve thought that the intense fascination with famous people must be about to end?and I?ve been repeatedly, egregiously mistaken. But now?truly, finally?I believe that we are at the apogee, the zenith, the plateau, the top of the market. After 30 years, this cycle of American celebrity mania has peaked. I think. I hope.
So I read on, eager to see what evidence Anderson had compiled to support his argument. But it wasn’t until the third-from-the-last paragraph that I found the evidence, such as it is:
The Nielsen ratings for this year?s Oscars were down 8 percent, and for the Grammys 11 percent. During the last half of 2005, the Enquirer?s newsstand sales were down by a quarter and Entertainment Weekly?s by 30 percent. The American OK! is said to be unwell, the magazine Inside TV was launched and killed last year, and a magazine called Star Shop was killed before it launched.
That’s it???!!! Good Lord, this kind of evidentiary base makes the Israel Lobby argument look like top-notch social science!! Even the facts that Anderson presents are bogus. Declining newsstand sales of some celerity mags are meaningless, because of the proliferation of other celebrity mags, like In Touch, Us Weekly, and In Style. Failed magazines are meaningless, since new magazines fail most of the time anyway. Oscar ratings, like Super Bowl ratings, have experienced a secular decline in recent years. And to my knowledge no one has ever cared about the Grammys. I look forward with bated breath to Anderson’s future proclamations of the death of blogs (I beat him to that!!) and why porn has jumped the shark.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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