Comments on: White House party crashers are winners!

By: Fruzsina Eordogh

Fruzsina Eordogh — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:38:48 +0000

Why, yes! I get almost all of my information from the internet, and you can easily ignore things of no interest. People crashing a presidential party does not merit a click.

By: Todd Essig

Todd Essig — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:08:13 +0000

Well done Matthew, you’ve caught the launch of TV Reality. Not to be confused with Reality TV. These people actually, really, with flesh-on-flesh contact, shook the hand of the President — and, they have a picture!! Even if they never bring their reality to TV, they’ve brought TV to reality and you caught the moment. Well done!

By: Matthew Greenberg

Matthew Greenberg — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:05:16 +0000

I’ve adored you for 15 years, LT, but here’s my point:
It’s not about actual power and fame (in DC or any other city). The Salahis have achieved TV fame. Even if the real world of news moves on in a week or a month, the Salahis have attained this championship belt of notoriety (small as it is) and can dine out on it forever and ever, thanks to the mysterious, swirling eddies of American taste that have given Omorosa, Joe the Plumber and your beloved Kate Gosselin paychecks and headlines.

Roy Hobbs only wanted people to say, when he walked by, There goes the best there ever was.

From now on, the Salahis can forever have people say, Those are the folks who crashed the White House. In their world (the bizarro world of reality TV), that’s fame.

By: Matthew Greenberg

Matthew Greenberg — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:58:55 +0000

Are you serious?

By: Matthew Greenberg

Matthew Greenberg — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:58:06 +0000

I think, Caitlin, that’s why they Salahis are so diabolically brilliant — their reality-show stupidity is just “newsy” enough (actually, more than enough, as you delineate) that the media can’t ignore it. It’s not like the Tiger Woods story/dilemma (which James Poniewozik smartly dissects – http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2009/11/30/looking-for-reasons-to-care-about-tiger-woods/) where mainstream media might turn up their nose at “gossipy”
news… these dunderheads wandered into the White House. We’re stuck reporting about it.

By: Lisa Todorovich

Lisa Todorovich — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:15:40 +0000

I love you like a brother, Matthew, but I gotta say, meh.

There’s no question their crashing a White House state dinner was news, and I think you’re right that people are so desperate to be on TV that they don’t care how stupid they make themselves look. Have you seen the rest of the “Real Housewives” franchise? That Monica Lewinsky-hosted masked dating show from a few years back had loads more class.

I agree with you in general that the state of American celebrity has degenerated to the truly pathetic — my sick fascination with the Gosselins alone proves that. But I still believe, naive as it may be, that there’s a difference between real celebrity and celebrity wannabes. They’re on morning TV shows and supposedly testifying before Congress this week, but it doesn’t make this a story that’s going to last much beyond that. I think we’re stuck with the Salahis only if Bravo does in fact sign them for the next stupid installment of their stupid series — which, come on, surely they have. With all this free publicity, Bravo would be foolish not to.

Which more or less makes your point for you. In Washington, the who are really power players don’t need to pull stupid stunts to get attention — they have pull where it counts. Which is why the whole notion of a “Real Housewives of DC” is just asinine anyway.

I say give it a week or two, depending on whether charges are filed and whose head rolls at the Secret Service. Then there will be another DUI, another rehab stint, another fill-in-the-blank, and the Salahis, no matter how prettily they’re sitting, will end up an asterisk.

By: Tweets that mention White House party crashers are winners! - Matthew Greenberg - Worst Episode Ever - True/Slant -- Topsy.com

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:06:51 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Matthew Greenberg and lewisdvorkin, Kristen Faust. Kristen Faust said: Well said @MEGreenberg and nice use of the word Faustian. http://ow.ly/HBrP [...]

By: Fruzsina Eordogh

Fruzsina Eordogh — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:52:23 +0000

Oh my, have I been out of the loop? I don’t watch TV and your piece is the first I have read about this party-crashing couple.

The media coverage around these two makes humanity look like chumps!

By: davidlosangeles

davidlosangeles — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:12:02 +0000

Mr. Greenberg,

I have met “media junkies” before and like heroin junkies, any fix is better than no fix.

By: Caitlin Kelly

Caitlin Kelly — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:03:21 +0000

And the solution is….?

I agree with you. But…1) if they broke the law, that’s news, by any classic definition; 2) they crashed the White House — ditto 3) they were photographed with the President — ditto.

Mencher’s classic journalism textbook on the definitions of news include the usual: 1) proximity (it happened in the U.S.); 2) it affects many people (arguably so, if they’d done harm to the President), 3) it touches people with wealth and power, and the President certainly qualifies.

They’re ugly morons. We perpetuate their notoriety by giving them attention. But when, where and how do ratings-starved media (and bloggers who need plenty of hits) collectively and simultaneously decide — OK, kids, we’re done here?

The drug-addicted vein craves the needle. Which is which?