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Beatle, Bardot and Media Hypocrites

Stars must speak because press won't cover real activists.

Paul Watson 27 Mar 2006TheTyee.ca

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McCartneys joined Brigitte's brigade.

The Canadian media is having conniptions and hissy fits over the fact that celebrities are protesting the Canadian slaughter of seals.

Editorials and pundits are squawking that celebrities have no right to speak out against the killing of seals.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper refused to meet with Brigitte Bardot to discuss the seal slaughter, yet his refusal was a news story.

That's the thing with celebrities, the media cannot ignore them. So despite all the whining, criticizing and pontificating about celebrities with an opinion, the opinions make news.

In a world where a celebrity makes the headlines for getting drunk, tripping on a rug, choking on a pretzel, or kissing their spouse or anyone else, especially someone else in public, is it any wonder that the headlines can be captured by just showing up somewhere with an opinion.

The Canadian media has been acting like horrified children in response to Brigitte Bardot coming to Ottawa to meet with the prime minister or that Sir Paul McCartney went to the ice to have his picture taken with a seal.

But as horrified and as indignant as they were, the pictures still appeared on the front page of the newspapers and lead the evening television news. And along with their pictures, were pictures and images of the seals being killed. Score for us.

Boring experts?

Come on you scribblers and talking heads, stop acting like you don't know what's going on.

The media makes the rules. You make the rules.

You're not interested in experts and certainly not interested in real activists.

I've been fighting the Canadian 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 attention that a actor or a musician can.

Canadian anti-sealing activists like Rebecca Aldworth and me know the facts and are willing to debate the issue, but Prime Minister Harper ignores us. With Brigitte Bardot, he had to hold a media conference to announce that he would refuse to meet with her. Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams has refused to debate us, but he was willing to debate the McCartneys on the Larry King show.

Considering his performance in that debate, I can understand why he would not wish to debate experts.

We bring celebrities to the table because people listen to what they have to say. There is no mystery about this. That is a basic law of modern media. When a celebrity opens their mouth, the typewriters click and when they smile, the cameras roll.

Look in the mirror

One Newfoundland politician recently said they were not worried about celebrities. He said that in three days, people will have forgotten that Paul McCartney had ever been to the ice to see the seals. It has been three weeks since he said that and the world is still talking about it and they have been talking about Brigitte Bardot posing with a baby seals for nearly thirty years.

When I walked into the media conference in Ottawa with Brigitte Bardot on March 22, I was not surprised by the number of journalists from all over the world in attendance. The place was packed and the room erupted in strobe bursts from cameras for a solid five minutes.

Why? Because this woman is a film icon in a media culture. At 71 years of age, she still commands the attention of reporters. She has not acted in three decades. She is no longer the sex symbol of France. Now she commands the attention of the media as a full time animal activist who has put her celebrity status to service for a cause she believes in.

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 and you do not listen to those of us who are not celebrities.

The fault is yours, not ours. So get with the program because we will be bringing lots more celebrities to the ice to help the seals and guess what? You're going to listen to them and you are going to take their pictures, question and interview them.

Because you know that entertainment is news and news must be entertaining and star power is the dominant power of media.

So get with the program and stop whining.

Paul Watson is founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a co-founder of Greenpeace International and the Greenpeace Foundation, was National Director of the Sierra Club USA and is Director of the Farley Mowat Institute.  [Tyee]

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