Is Most Celebrity Publicity Considered Spin?

By: Arment Dietrich | July 8, 2007 |

I’m not here to encourage the obsession over Paris Hilton. Personally, I think there’s too much focus on celebrities today, especially Paris Hilton and her recent escapades. Nelly, a rapper, agrees, saying that “I have relatives who are getting out of jail but no one’s paying attention to them.”

I may not be a Paris fanatic, but I must congratulate her publicist, who has perfected the art of spin. After the heiress was released from jail there was media frenzy. Despite all this coverage though, no one really seemed to talk about the reasons why Paris was in jail. Instead, the media focused on her claims to be a changed woman with a new view on life. Paris’s publicist used spin to her advantage; not to the advantage of the supposed not-for-profit she is going to do as a changed woman.

As I sat in an airport with Larry King Live on the television counting down until Paris was on with him, I wanted to scream, “Why is your publicist doing this?”

The constant news of Paris changed from being about her hard partying ways to a girl who wants to help people and stop partying. The power that spin has over media is frightening, especially if the spin rewards Paris Hilton. If it were up to us, Paris would still be hiding out in Europe deciding what she really is going to do with her life. And then, when she figured it out, we’d release a statement with information on the charity she is supporting and say nothing about what she doesn’t like about herself or if she learned anything in jail. — Taylor Krugman and Gini Dietrich