The cult of celebrity goes back a lot further than you’re giving it credit. The cult of celebrity predates America, heck it predates Jesus. The most that’s really happened in America is that when we got more forms of mass communication and mass entertainment we created the bandwidth and opportunity to have more celebrities.
Before the 1970s it was easy for men to stay out of that world, because we lived for hard news, not Madonna and Mork and Mindy.
The left and feminists brought change to the news industry, the first thing was eliminating the “women’s section” of newspapers, and then practicing affirmative action to bring in young female writers and journalists for “human interest stories” and popular culture and celebrities, anything but dry long, pictureless articles on foreign affairs, weapons systems, military issues, and dry politics.
“”According to Carolyn Kitch, professor of journalism at Temple University, the first regular woman’s page in a major newspaper appeared in the 1890s, in the New York World. Women’s pages quickly became staples of the newspapers, featuring society coverage, food and fashion, coverage of the burgeoning women’s clubs and more. “”
“”But at the same time, while reserving a separate space for “women’s issues” meant that things like parenting, fashion, and the beginnings of the feminist movement got column inches, the separation also demarcated the women’s page as the site of less newsy content, a “pink ghetto” that still persists.””