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Once again a celebrity has sided with the seals. Pamela Anderson delivered a carefully crafted outburst at the Junos in Halifax on Sunday, April 2.
But this now-familiar use of fame in defence of animals doesn’t sit well with the Canadian media. In fact, they’re having conniptions and hissy fits over the use of star power.
In the wake of Brigitte Bardot’s visit to Ottawa to meet with the prime minister and Paul McCartney’s trip to the ice to have his picture taken with a seal, editors and pundits are squawking that celebrities have no right to speak against the hunt.
But despite their indignation, the pictures appeared on the front pages of newspapers and led the evening TV news.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper refused to meet with Bardot. (He hasn’t responded yet, at least not publicly, to Anderson’s request for a tête-à- tête.) Yet even his refusal to meet Bardot made the news. And beside those pix were images of the seals being killed. Score one for us.
That’s the thing with celebrities: the media can’t ignore them. So despite all the whining and pontificating about celebrities with opinions, their opinions are news.
In a world where celebrities make headlines for getting drunk, tripping on a rug or kissing their spouses or anyone else – especially someone else – in public, is it any wonder that just showing up somewhere with an idea will sell ads, too?
Come on, you scribblers and talking heads, stop acting like you don’t know what’s going on. The media make the rules. You’re not interested in experts, and you’re certainly not interested in real activists.
I’ve been fighting the slaughter of seals for three decades, and there is no way short of ramming a ship, getting tossed in jail or getting killed by a sealer that I can command the same attention as an actor or musician.
Canadian anti-sealing activists like Rebecca Aldworth and I know the facts and are willing to debate the issue, but Harper ignores us. He had to hold a media conference to announce that he’d refused to meet with Brigitte Bardot.
Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams won’t debate us, but he was willing to argue with the McCartneys on Larry King Live.
When I walked into the Ottawa media conference with Bardot on March 22, I wasn’t surprised by the number of journalists from all over the world. The room erupted in camera strobe bursts for a solid five minutes.
Why? Because she’s a film icon in a media culture, though she hasn’t acted in three decades.
When I hear so-called professional journalists ask why we have celebrities speak for us and for the animals, the environment or social causes, I marvel at their denial of the rules of their own trade.
They are there, good reporters, because you listen to them.
The fault is yours, not ours. So get with the program, because we will be bringing lots more celebrities to the ice – and guess what? You’ll listen to them and take their pictures.
news@nowtoronto.com
