Anna Nicole Smith: la fin du journalisme?

Sur le site Infomaniac (http://newsresearch.blogspot.com/), on signale un texte vitriolique et troublant de Carl Hiaasen, écrivain et chroniqueur au Miami Hérald. Pour Hiaasen la couverture journalistique de la mort d’Anna Nicole Smith signifie la fin du journalisme comme nous l’avons connu.

Il écrit : « We have seen the future, and it's not pretty. »

Texte intégral


Extrait:
We have seen the future, and it's not pretty
By CARL HIAASEN

Now that Anna Nicole Smith is at long last departed from Florida, it's time to confront a simmering disgust over the media's salivating treatment of this dreary event.

Was the press coverage excessive? You bet.

Mindless? Inevitably.

Tasteless? Rapturously so.

But this is the new New Journalism, which is steered by a core belief that people would rather be smothered by seedy gossip about dead ex-Playmate junkies than be bothered with the details of North Korea's nuclear program.

If you Googled Anna Nicole's name last week, you got 28.8 million hits -- 10 times more than that of Condoleezza Rice, who is only the U.S. secretary of state.

Debate all you wish about whether the public's interest is fueling the Anna Nicole overkill, or the overkill is inflating the public's interest. The fact is, lots of people are hungry for the story -- and not because they care one bit about this poor woman, or her child.