The Public Eye Is Sometimes Necessary

By Alyssa Tompkins

When you think of magazines, what comes to mind? For most it is the stories or photographs of those in the spotlight: celebrities and politicians. Cover stories expose scandals or simply exposing weight gain. Photos of swimsuit clad women and captions point out stretchmarks on the exposed skin. Is this really what people want? Of course, I’d like to believe this answer is no. No one wants to read reporters degrading other human beings. Yet, by the same token, people make a living off of this kind of reporting even though it is very detrimental to other people. Celebrities and politicians are, no matter what they believe or say, still human. They too deserve a private life, one where they can live in peace. That said, the aspects of celebrities and politicians lives that affect other Americans or their line of work should be exposed.

Personally, I don’t care that some celebrity is getting divorced, and I am not going to buy a tabloid with that type of cover story. That information should be kept private; I wouldn’t want all Americans to know about my marriage in that type of intimate way. Granted, I’m not married and not famous enough for that hypothetical marriage to be exposed. But, think about it in your own life, would you like everyone to know every aspect about your life? No, I’m sure you wouldn’t. You are human, and you deserve the right to privacy in your private affairs.

Actual affairs, though, are a whole other story. Politicians need to be held accountable because things in their private lives that will affect Americans. For example, when a politician has an affair, it needs to be exposed for the sake of America. An affair shows disloyalty, impulsiveness, and a multitude of other traits that affect the job performance of an elected official. Politicians need to be trusted by those they represent, and they must prove themselves able to handle their jobs. Journalists must Inform citizens about things that affect them in order to keep politicians honest.

Celebrities are a much more grey area when it comes to these lines, though. Here’s the problem: their lives don’t directly impact Americans. So, based on my previous logic, celebrities should not have their lives under a microscope. But here’s the hard part of this: people want to know about celebrities they follow closely. Now, I don’t fully agree with this in any form of tabloids or magazines. It’s 2018 people, just follow your favorite celebrity on social media. Anything you want to know about celebrities is up somewhere on their social media and with captions that are, I dunno, not rude. I do understand that social media is a more idealized way of viewing people, so you are not going to see the unflattering photos of folks. But my main point now is, why the heck do you need to see those unflattering photos? People who are on the outside of celebrities lives do not need to be so intrusive looking in. So, people just need to suck it up and not use magazines to follow their celebrities.

I don’t have a way to change current practices of tabloid reporting, but I do know that Americans should not be supporting this type of so-called journalism. So, think wisely about how you follow your favorite celebrity;it could be supporting the invasion of people’s private life.