CON: Stars are people too, respect boundaries

The paparazzi need to give celebrities and their families the privacy and space that they deserve.

In today’s society, the media has placed celebrities on such a high pedestal that it’s almost as if we forget that they’re human.

Is Kim Kardashian so huge of a star that reporters need to dig through her garbage just to get a good story?

Does it really have to be prime-time news every time Lindsay Lohan enters rehab?

The answer is no, and the recent passing of superstar Whitney Houston was a somber occurrence that quickly turned into a media free-for-all.

The images of 18-year-old Bobbi Kristina Houston surrounded by photographers as she was rolled out of her hotel room on a stretcher were heartbreaking.

Here was a young girl who had just fainted after hearing the tragic news of her mother’s death.  To make matters worse, the paparazzi insisted on photographing her.

What justification can a journalist give for this behavior?

Tabloids and magazines shouldn’t need a picture of Bobbi Kristina in this fragile state. The public already knows what someone in mourning looks like. Why does Bobby Brown need to be harassed by journalists as he’s exiting a plane at LAX to care for his daughter?

There is a line that exists between celebrities working in their professional lives and just living their personal lives.

Whitney Houston was not perfect and she never pretended to be. In an interview conducted shortly before her death, she said, “I almost wish I could be more exciting. That way, I could match what is happening out there to me.”

It’s a very sad process when a celebrity’s personal life becomes more momentous than their accomplishments in the arts.

Whitney Houston was a pioneer in her trade and was able to accomplish things in her lifetime that very few could.

Not only was she an award-winning musician and actress, she was the first African-American woman to grace the cover of “Seventeen Magazine.” She won six Grammy awards.

There was so much more to Whitney Houston than her substance abuse. In the wake of her death, we should be remembering Whitney Houston for her work, and not for her faults.

What made Houston extraordinary was her beautiful voice. Let her music be her legacy and not the tragic image that the paparazzi portrayed.

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CON: Stars are people too, respect boundaries