WP: Paris Hilton, Free To Speak Her Mind (Such as It Is)
By Tom Shales
Thursday, June 28, 2007; Page C01
In her first post-jail interview, the heiress told CNN's Larry King she's "definitely matured." (By Kyle Christy -- CNN Via Associated Press)
...."Sadly, this is part of American culture," lamented King's colleague Anderson Cooper on his own show, "Anderson Cooper 360," following King's. Cooper seemed embarrassed to be covering the interview even though he'd been doing promos during the day as well. On the low-rated "Paula Zahn Now," which preceded King, CNN ran a "countdown clock" headlined "Paris Tells All," in the lower right-hand corner of the screen....
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It would be easy to dismiss the entire event as much ado about less than nothing, but America has always loved bad girls, stories of people conquering adversity, and tales of reform and repentance. This saga has all those elements and a beautiful blonde besides, making it essentially irresistible. Of course for all the hoopla about CNN landing the first post-jail interview, other networks reportedly had turned it down. NBC was said to have made a $1 million offer to Hilton's father but negotiations apparently fell through.
Meanwhile TV blogs were chortling over remarks made in the past by CNN news director Jon Klein, who once boasted that CNN is "the most essential source of information" in the country and said, "The American people want serious news, and they're not getting enough of it from cable." They certainly didn't get a lot of it from CNN last night.
To look at the spectacle from yet another perspective, watching Hilton for an hour was in its way more edifying and encouraging than enduring more hateful rants from publicity hound Ann Coulter on MSNBC's "Hardball With Chris Matthews" the night before. Matthews was still discussing the Coulter appearance on his show last night. Next to Coulter, Paris Hilton is pure refreshment....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/28/AR2007062800002.html?hpid=moreheadlines