Originally Posted by
Barracute:
“Thankyou blue, some lovely pics there, glad they've got some more of my favourite 'pink' ones, typical they had to spoil it - trade mark tantrum? Poor Nikki only has to frown or point a finger and they accuse her of throwing a tantrum don't they
”
It's because that is what she is 'known' for, it's pap/tabloid shorthand and essentially meaningless, much the same as continually referring to Kate Moss or Sarah Harding as a partymonster, Calum Best or Russell Brand being a sex-mad lothario, or Jade Goody and Danielle Lloyd being ignorant mouthy bigots.
It's not the whole of who they are, merely a small, readily identifiable characteristic that enables the media to distill a person down to one trait so that they are one-dimensional cyphers in the game that is 'entertainment gossip'.
It's something we all have a tendency to do, whether consciously or otherwise, when we initially assess people we come into contact with, picking on one aspect of them which helps us catalogue and remember them, but also can subsequently cloud our judgement of the person as a whole and affect our dealings with them.
Simply perusing these message boards in the first few days after new housemates join Big Brother illustrates this tendency to instant labels - the Bitch, the Flirt, the Macho Man, the Slacker, the Queen, the Bimbo, the Sleazeball, the Spoilt Brat, the Biddy, the Gangsta - how many times have we seen these and similar identifiers applied to Big Brother contestants.
Journalists are essentially lazy, even those who are engaged on what might be called 'proper' stories will try to get away with the least effort by relying on wire services for as much content as possible, those at the bottom of the market (i.e. the red tops) know they're just feeding worthless bullcrap to knuckle-dragging morons so there is even less incentive.
We should expect more of our fourth estate, but we should equally expect more of its audience. Frankly I'm not holding out much hope!
