6.09.2007

Never Thought It Would Happen

After watching the media feeding frenzy around the whole Paris Hilton circus yesterday, they did something I didn't think was possible: They made me start feeling sorry for Paris Hilton, and I sort of hate them for doing that.

They made me agree with people like Geraldo Rivera and Ann Coulter who said that she was being treated worse than the average person would have been in the same circumstances, given a much more severe sentence than anyone else would have, simply because the judge didn't like her and because he felt (accurately) that she was a spoiled, snotty celebrity. And then, with some members of the media and people like Al Sharpton gloating about Paris being sent back to jail...

Well, being envied and hated by a large portion of the American population shouldn't be a crime or an aggravating factor in sentencing for a comparatively minor crime. The judge clearly abused his sentencing authority to "make an example" out of Paris Hilton. And the whole unseemly spectacle of paparazzi throwing themselves in front of the police car taking Paris off to jail, the gleeful reaction of some of the legal analysts on Fox News, all just served to reinforce the feeling that justice was not being served.

Paris Hilton is being crucified for your sins.