Hitchens on Paris

He takes the unusual step of writing about her current difficulties with humanity and compassion. However, the piece is more about the coverage, and those of us whose attention is drawn, and those doing the attention-drawing:

The supposedly "broad-minded" culture turns out to be as prurient and salacious as the elders in The Scarlet Letter. Hilton is legally an adult but the treatment she is receiving stinks—indeed it reeks—of whatever horrible, buried, vicarious impulse underlies kiddie porn and child abuse.

[…] Lynching parties used to be fiestas, as we have no right to forget, and the ugly coincidence of sexual nastiness—obscenity is the right name for it—and vengefulness is what seems to lend the savor to the Saturnalia. There must be more than one "gossip" writer who has already rehearsed for the day that Paris Hilton takes a despairing overdose. And what a glorious day of wall-to-wall coverage that will be!

A relief from, and contrast to, the pervasive Dr. Phil/Oprah/Springer vampirism.