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Blogs and Celebs

Tuesday, January 21st, 2003

This Jim Henley post chastising blogosphere untouchable James Lileks touches on a regular connundrum I find myself in when faced with the celebrity shenanigans of, say, George Clooney.

When the latest celebrity mouths off about some issue s/he knows nothing about, my first inclination is always to administer the rhetorical bitch-slap. Stupid Babs Streisand. You know nothing of which you speak. You’re a schmaltzy singer and medicore actress, dammit. Shut up.

But then I get to thinking. Who the hell am I? I’m certainly no expert on the many things I spout off about. At least the likes of Brink Lindsey, or Mark Kleiman or Eugene Volokh are well-educated and trained in the fields on which they opine. I, on the other hand, have merely been blessed with the ability to string words together in fairly interesting ways. Other than that, I am Babs without the fame, the voice, and the carnal knowledge of Elliott Gould (the latter of which I consider a blessing).

That of course doesn’t mean I should quit writing or opining or attempting to convince people. And I won’t.

And so that’s also why I’ve decided to stop chastising celebrities for political activism. It’s still okay to ridicule them for what they believe, of course, because it’s almost always wrong. And it’s still fair game to point out their unabashed hypocrisy when, for example, they lecture middle America about SUVs, but at the same time keep 21-car garages for themselves.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 21st, 2003 at 8:23 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

7 Responses to “Blogs and Celebs”

  1. #1 |  brian keegan |  January 21st, 2003 at 10:23 am

    You know, you’re right. I think I’ll try and join in on the idea of criticizing the CONTENT of a person’s argument instead of challenging their right to say it. This is a very good idea. I guess the bottom line is that we all have the right to be idiots… :-)

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  2. #2 |  Chip Taylor |  January 21st, 2003 at 11:14 am

    You’re right. We are all entitled to our opinions. However, I reserve the right to criticize or ridicule both the celebrity in question and Congress when they invite celebrities to testify at Congressional hearings based only on their celebrity and not on any specialized knowledge they happen to possess.

    Such as this one:
    http://www.massnews.com/2002_editions/04_Apr/043002_mn4.shtml

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  3. #3 |  steve |  January 21st, 2003 at 11:35 am

    slap the celebs…

    Here’s more names to add to the list of celebs who mouth off (or at least have in the past).

    Ronald Reagan (the prime example of the danger of celebrity sticking their noses in policy), Sonny Bono, Charlton Heston, Ted Nugent (the author of Wango Tango taken seriously??)

    and athletes turned policy wonks are no better…JC Watts, Tom Osbourne, Steve Largent, Jim Bunning

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  4. #4 |  Dave |  January 21st, 2003 at 1:10 pm

    Radley,
    I think the difference in you and someone like Babs or any other celebrity who tries to voice themselves is that first they *are* using their fame to get their message across.
    Secondly, they aren’t up for rebuttal. If I disagree with you, I just tell you, Hey, I don’t like that notion.
    But to disagree with Bono, you would need Bruce Springsteen saying publicly that what Bono said was moronic, therefore having the same impact on the sheep.

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  5. #5 |  Paul |  January 21st, 2003 at 1:17 pm

    I think it’s okay to ridicule them for the message and the reasons why they choose to spout out that message. If the Funny Girl thinks (and this is pure speculation on my part, but it seems likely) that people should listen to her because she’s a celebrity and that her celebrity status makes her the authority on issues, then I say bash away…

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  6. #6 |  roger |  January 21st, 2003 at 4:18 pm

    Steve -

    I think I sense an agenda…

    (Not that I’m too familiar with the politics of Tom Orbourne and Jim Bunning)

    It’s not a very good practice to defend your own team by pointing out that the other team is worse.

    Ted Nugent, by the way, speaks from a lifetime of experience with hunting and firearms. That’s why you don’t hear much from him about foreign policy, health care, etc.

    I will grant you, however, that it is much easier to listen to a celeb “mouth-off” when they support your own view.

    The Nuge speaks from an informed, experienced angle, while George Cloony, for example, is simply “mouthing-off”.

    Besides, when did Babs or Clooney EVER create something as cool as Wango Tango?

    Like the first poster, however, I fully support everyone’s right to be an idiot, and Clooney is fully exercising that right.

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  7. #7 |  Charles |  January 23rd, 2003 at 9:52 am

    Who the hell are you…to criticize yourself for not being an expert?

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