AP's Experimental Blackout of All Paris Hilton "News"

Posted by Alex in Everything Else on March 5, 2007 at 3:44 pm


Last week the Associated Press did an experiment: it had a blackout on all news about Paris Hilton, just to see if anyone cared.

Turns out, people noticed:

The reaction was to the idea of the ban, not the effects of it. There was some internal hand-wringing. Some felt we were tinkering dangerously with the news. Whom, they asked, would we ban next? Others loved the idea. "I vote we do the same for North Korea," one AP writer said facetiously.

… an internal AP memo about the ban had found its way to the outside world. The New York Observer quoted it on Wednesday, and the Gawker.com gossip site linked to it. Howard Stern was heard mentioning the ban on his radio show, and calls came in from various news outlets asking us about it. On Editor and Publisher magazine’s Web site, a reader wrote: "This is INCREDIBLE, finally a news organization that can see through this evil woman." And another: "You guys are my heroes!"

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COMMENT

10 comments to "AP's Experimental Blackout of All Paris Hilton "News""

  1. Hanako
    March 5th, 2007 at 4:25 pm

    Let's do that for Brittney and Anna too.

  2. Jenguin
    March 5th, 2007 at 5:09 pm

    Hmm.. so now it's news that there was a ban on "news" about Paris Hilton. Oy, my head hurts just thinking about it! But way to go AP!

  3. billy
    March 5th, 2007 at 5:52 pm

    it just occured to me...paris hilton will age.

  4. beajerry
    March 5th, 2007 at 6:42 pm

    Banning Hilton from the news is like banning a comic strip from a paper. She's not news, she's trivia.

  5. Weakly
    March 5th, 2007 at 8:15 pm

    Wow, look at all the free press!

  6. Tyler
    March 5th, 2007 at 11:21 pm

    The problem is that by "banning" Paris, you acctually create news... Perfect circle.

  7. XuYu
    March 6th, 2007 at 1:12 am

    Let's do that for all the good news coming out of Iraq! Oh wait! they already are! HAHAHAHAHA!

  8. Justin
    March 6th, 2007 at 11:15 am

    Oh man if only they could do this forever, and for all celebrities...

    Anna Nichole Smith dies! OH NO LETS PUT IT ON THE FRONT PAGE FOR DAYS!

    You want to have an entertainment section? FINE! but leave all entertainment news in the Entertainment section.

  9. Daddywilco
    March 6th, 2007 at 9:58 pm

    How about a permanent ban? And while we're at it, why not focus our attention in the media to the things that actually matter?

  10. Aramax
    March 6th, 2007 at 10:33 pm

    Associated press is a joke.

    They're just telling everyone what to watch and who to listen and they do it on every chanels.

    I dont buy newspapers anymore because the information is easier to find on the net and usually less biassed then in the newspapers.

    I heard a debate once about how important it was to keep on buying newspaper to protect the information but I totaly forgot what was his argument because I was laughing too hard the whole time.


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