Leave Britney alone!

Ok, it's officially gotten out of hand. Have you seen the video of Britney Spears shopping at Target? Some shoppers actually got in front of the media horde and yelled for them to "leave her alone!" I applaud that.

This weekend, I attended a media law seminar at Kent State University. It was thought provoking. We spent a decent amount of time on "invasion of privacy." Two things factor whether or not an invasion of privacy is justifiable. One, is it newsworthy? For example, publishing Cleveland school shooter Asa Coon's school records. And the the second thing that can justify an invasion of privacy is the public's right to know or our demand for the knowledge. I brought up the Britney Spears shopping at Target episode. Why is it our right to know that she shopped there? And WHO is demanding to know this? Is her life that important that we know that she shops at Target?????

Larry King

So Larry King jumped on the Britney bandwagon Monday night with a huge panel of folks discussing the ramifications of Spears losing custody of her children to Mr. Ward Cleaver himself, Kevin Federline. Is it just me or has Larry King lost whatever credibility he had? I cite recent examples of my thinking that he has slipped as his softball interview with Paris Hilton when she was released from her short jail stay. King failed to follow up several times with on several items that were crying out for tough questions. No doubt, Larry's audience was huge that night as Paris was the main draw. My wondering is this...is Larry trying to widen his demographic? I highly doubt many people in the audience even watch King on a regular basis. And certainly his audience isn't full of 12-25 year olds.