Australia's mainstream media has an obsession with nonentities.
If you once had a bit part in Neighbours, played a couple of seasons for an under-achieving AFL team before developing a drug habit, or were a total bitch on a TV "reality" dating show then your luck is in.
Your views. no matter tragic or idiotic, will be assiduously sought after, and reported on in depth by both the Murdoch tabloids and that bizarre selection of "TV" magazines that dot every supermarket's shelves.
The latest example concerns former Australian Idol host James Mathison, who criticised Channel 9 and tennis star Ash Barty, after she celebrated her Australian Open win with a beer on live television.
Nothing could be more Australian. And Barty had, in fact, sworn off alcohol throughout the tournament.
But Mathison, clearly suffering from attention deficit, called Barty's celebratory beverage a “glamourisation of alcohol”.
It was later revealed that years after his TV star flickered briefly, Mathison now works at an Amazon distribution warehouse "after stepping away from the spotlight".
Mathison should probably stay away from pubs for a while after saying: “Our glorification and glamorisation of alcohol in this country is normalised to the point where we can’t even celebrate success without booze on live TV. It’s bizarre.
“Imagine if this was in Canada and the broadcaster hoisted a joint onto their new champion?”
Mathison's thoughts and the responses of the likes of low-rating TV talking head Rita Panahi were splashed all over the Herald-Sun tabloid in Melbourne. A newspaper that reports breathlessly if an AFL player is bitten on the ankle by a mosquito.
And the TV networks are no better.
How many of the contestants on the recent I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here were really celebrities? Several were so obscure they would not be recognised by members of their own families.
Time for the media to lift its game.
# The writer glamourises alcohol by having a glass of wine most days.
# Image Ebuka Mordi, Scop.io
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