Last week while looking for news on the upcoming election, I was struck by a particularly insane headline from the CBC. “Actress Pamela Anderson says she wouldn’t vote for Harper,” it read, without a hint of comedy.
Anderson didn’t say it as she was being pulled from the wreckage of a burning car, or in tandem with an announcement that she was going to enter politics herself, or even write it in an op-ed — all of which may have been at least a little bit more appropriately newsy. She just blurted it out at a press junket for her new book of poems and pictures.
It’s possible that the reason this made headlines was because of another recent celebrity media splash.
Donald Sutherland’s article in the Globe and Mail was another frustrating example of celebrities commenting on political affairs. It seems as though because he enjoys hanging out in Canada and tries really hard not to say “eh” all the time, he should also be entitled to have a say in how the country is governed.
He bafflingly blamed Harper’s government for preventing Canadians who live abroad for more than five years from voting. The legislation has been in place since the 90s.
Neither Sutherland nor Anderson make any convincing arguments, but that didn’t matter. Because everyone knows who they are, everyone wants to know what they think.
Of course, it is common for undue attention to be given to those with celebrity status. Everyone is interested in what celebs have to say, and as a result their opinions on anything and everything carry a greater weight than the average Joe.
Political parties will often capitalize on this, as Stephen Harper did by posing for a picture with Wayne Gretzky and a vote Harper campaign sign recently, and later with a Gretzky jersey.
I’m willing to accept that as a sad fact, reflective of a shallow culture that equates fame with import, and move on.
After all, if people want to get their political opinions from tea leaves, their parents or their church, what business is that of mine? One great benefit to living in a democracy is that we don’t have to justify our vote to anyone but ourselves.
But what’s really difficult for me to swallow is when news organizations — the Globe and Mail in the Sutherland case and even more frustratingly, a publicly funded news organization in the Anderson case — provide a platform to splash around celebrities’ opinions.
By giving a voice to those unqualified to comment, they lend unjustified legitimacy to their opinions. It’s a betrayal of public trust.
Actors and athletes are just people who pretend to be other people for a living, or are really good at sports.
Let’s respect them for that, and not delude ourselves that they have a particular expertise or insight into politics.
Keep in mind that as much as it is within your rights to let them inform your political decisions, you might as well hire a clown to fix a leak in the toilet.
