AP Ends Hilton Blackout

The Associated Press has has officially ended a self-imposed Paris Hilton news blackout with this article about Ms. Hilton recently receiving a traffic ticket in West Hollywood. And, if you were as concerned and curious as me, the first thing that should have popped in your mind was, there was a Paris Hilton news blackout?

In a strange and somewhat self-congratulatory announcement, the AP stated that the Paris Hilton blackout was "experimental" and was pleasantly surprised when editors and other supporters praised the AP's bold stance against further sensationalizing Ms. Hilton's rather drab and quotidian existence. That the blackout only lasted a few days is neither here nor there, of course, since K-heds are still a necessity even in the age of digital editing software and on-line publishing, and there is no better source of gap filler that people inexplicably care about than Ms. Hilton.

Of course, as reported in the New York Observer, who obtained an e-mail memo about the blackout last week, the intent of the blackout wasn't some moral stance against the philistine and irrelevant, or even a a serious commentary on the current state of the news media, but rather a way to throw some attention on the Associated Press. As written by AP entertainment editor Jesse Washington:

“Hopefully we will be able to discuss what ‘news’ we missed,” read the memo, which could have used some stern copy-editing, “the repercussions of our blackout for AP both editorially and business-wise, and most importantly the force that cause the world to be fixated on this person who, despite her shallow frivolity, represents an epochal development in our culture.”
(Courtesy of the New York Observer)

And if one wants to read the equally epochal navel-gazing that the AP purports to be insightful self-analysis, read it here.