We Want Media

I recently read a fantastic article spotlighting image in the media. The piece used various parallels – from A Million Little Pieces author James Frey to Madonna – to explain how we, as consumers, use a double standard to judge the honesty and integrity of a media personality’s persona relative to their person. The piece explained that the exaggeration of an image – easily done by a musician in today’s PR-savvy world – seems to have catastrophic results if the audience isn’t in-the-know right away.

Now I realize I’m a couple of weeks late on the Frey/Oprah debacle, but while I lived in Paris last fall, I read through the book, before the Oprah’s Book Club recommendation, without the media hooplah about Frey being the next J.G. Ballard, and minus that ridiculous teal-toned particle-hand cover. And you know what? I found it to be the most satisfying read I’ve had in years. What really struck me was how quickly people turned against the book after The Smoking Gun blew Frey out of the water. Were they right? Absolutely. Was it a good piece of journalism? You bet. Does it make the book any worse?

No.

That book is just as riveting as it was when I first bought it – and I didn’t notice the “memoir” tag on it until the whole issue blew open in the news.

I think we, as the audience, are playing the fool. In the music world, we give indie bands like Pavement credibility for spending their high school years shoegazing in their basement and then singing about it, yet we give Madonna credit being everything she’s not:

Madonna made image construction an art form in itself, reinventing herself from album to album-- naughty NYC club kid, "Material Girl", auburn-haired blasphemer, Hollywood heroine, English-accented Kabbala mom. [Pitchfork]

But when we aren't told about it, yes, that seems to be where the line is drawn. Or is it? I sense hypocrisy on our part. Even Rush Limbaugh’s pill problem doesn’t change what he says each minute on the air. We must find a credibility standard to adhere to. Milli Vanilli, anyone?