Celebrity News A Hot Commodity

When bad things happen, it’s human nature to try to figure out what went wrong and who is responsible. It helps to keep us from repeating the same mistake twice.

But the answers rarely come easily or clearly. So it is with the tragic death of Princess Diana. Still, we have to ask: Who is responsible? The paparazzi who chased her on their motorcycles? The drunken driver?

Certainly, editors and publishers who pay for pictures of celebrities have some responsibility.

How about the princess herself? She had no problem with photographers when they were making pictures of her with Mother Teresa. She used the media skillfully when she needed it, but she wanted publicity on her terms only. Couldn’t the accident have been avoided if she had just walked right past the paparazzi?

And how about the so-called mainstream press? Didn’t it help create Di’s celebrity? Didn’t it fawn over every cause she embraced? Almost as if she were the first person on Earth to declare land mines a bad thing. Didn’t the mainstream press prepare the feast for the supermarket tabloids?

In spite of the gossipy people columns many newspapers carry, the differences between the mainstream press and tabloid journalism are substantial. Mainstream editors insist that photographers at their papers are motivated by stories that help make the community a better place to live, and they’re right. Mainstream news editors have ethical standards and argue daily about how they apply to news content; the tabloids have checkbooks.

Now, hard-working photojournalists everywhere are being grouped with company they would never keep. They are learning a bitter lesson about guilt by association. But there is nothing here to suggest that the behaviors that led to Princess Diana’s death will change.

Does celebrity news seem out of control? Yes.

But the bigger question is: Will it sell? Yes. Yes. Yes. Pictures of the princess and her boyfriend were worth a fortune in the tabloid market. The market for celebrity news is huge and that creates the paparazzi. Sadly, even in death, Di is making money for the tabloids.

Waiting in line at a Spokane grocery store this weekend, a woman was reading one of the supermarket tabloids. The headline read, “Di warned to drop Dodi,” or something similar. Asked if the store should think about pulling the tabloids as a matter of taste and respect, the cashier replied simply, “They’re still selling.”

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Scott Sines/For the editorial board