Saturday, August 12, 2006

don’t you start me talking

I do not buy the New York Post. I did not grow up in a family that would have ever considered reading the Post. I don’t care that their sports page is better or that they have four sudoku puzzles, I wouldn’t buy the thing if it was the last thing to read on the planet and I was about to take an 8 hour plane ride.

However, if you walk to work in the morning on the streets of New York City, you are going to see the Post hawked at newspaper stands and by vendors outside subway entrances and on corners throughout town. So there was no avoiding the screaming headlines and photographs better suited for an UK paper’s Page Three than for the front (or back) page of a daily paper.

I’m not a big fan of gossip, either about people like us or celebrities.  It’s hurtful, and I don’t care much for the whole argument that if you decide to be famous you discard your right to dignity, privacy or simple human consideration. It doesn’t matter that I don’t know them or that they make millions of dollars or I listen to their music or watch them play baseball, all I can ever think of is how much it would suck if the tables were turned. If you’ve ever been the target of idle or just plain wrong gossip, you can probably identify.

All I can ever think is: where’s the humanity? When did we start turning on each other with such velocity? I have been in conversations with people I considered friends, and listened to the so-called ‘reliable information’ they were generously sharing with me about Famous Person X (because that’s how they viewed it, they were giving me something precious) and all I could think is: my god, I’m glad I’m not famous yet, because what would you be telling total strangers about me if I was?


(I do want to make it clear that someone who commits a crime is in a different category as far as I’m concerned.)

I also always, always, always question so-called “inside sources” or “friends of” sources. How good a friend can this person be, how much of an intimate, if they are willing to share private information with total strangers, or blatantly spill secrets to a journalist. How reliable could this information possibly be? Or even if factually true, if you have an agenda that impels you to spread it around, what are you leaving out? What context is being omitted in your quest for your 15 minutes?

The other thing that occurred to me this week, walking through the barrage of Mets-related trash in the media, is that none of this would be happening if the Mets weren’t doing well, weren’t being taken seriously as contenders. Otherwise the media would be continuing to fawn over Jeter’s perfume brand.

(I’m sorry, I just threw up a little bit in my mouth when I said that.)

I had hoped to write about the Seattle trip last night but it’s been a long week. Hopefully over the weekend. About last night’s game, all I can say is that I’m glad we decided not to drive down to DC this weekend.

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