Opinions: Émile Zola, Meet Paris Hilton

Written by Charles Kinney Jr.

Thursday, 01 October 2009 00:00

Charles Kinney Jr.

Everyone and her dog has a pet cause these days. Take, if you will, Paris Hilton and her chihuahua, Tinkerbell. Flitting from spa day to

http://www.phillwebb.net/history/NineteenthCentury/Zola/Zola.jpg

“accidentally” exposed titillating soft-core porn secret videos, Paris is an active proponent of vegetarianism, child welfare and even, incredibly, politics. A not so dim-witted Paris kicked Republican McCain's proverbial ass in mock political ads, using hilarious catch sound-bytes such as, “See ya' at the debates, bitches!”

The celebrity cause list is nearly endless: Sting and his rain forest, Bob Geldof and Band Aid, and Bono single-handedly saving the world. Footballer, actor, musician, you're nothing without a cause. At best, it's noblesse oblige; at worse, it's media whores feeding from the trough. One thing is generally agreed upon, however. These celebrities can artfully manipulate the media...

The roots of this frenzied activism rest in the involvement of Émile Zola, the late 19th century French firebrand, in what become known as the Dreyfus Affair. Alfred Dreyfus, a young Jewish captain serving in the French army, was wrongly accused of slipping secrets to the Germans. Dreyfus was convicted on fake evidence presented by French counter-intelligence, and sent to Devil's Island. Zola, outraged at the framing and the subsequent cover-up, went on a rampage. He penned an attack in January of 1898 on the front page of L'Aurore, in an open letter to the French president entitled, J'accuse. The result shook the French political system and exposed France's deeply anti-semitic roots. Zola was tried for criminal libel and fled to London to escape jail time. Returning to Paris in 1899, he witnessed the downfall of the French government. Dreyfus was exonerated in 1906. Zola had created one of the modern era's first (and dramatically successful) forms of protest and dissent.

There's almost a direct correlation between Zola and Arthur Miller's and Edward R. Murrow's battle with McCarthyism in 1950's America. Faced with accusations of being communist by Senator Joseph McCarthy, Hollywood writers, actors and directors were interrogated, blacklisted and fired in one of the darker periods of American democracy. Miller's was relieved of his US' passport by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. He wrote The Crucible, a story of Salem's witch trials, as a parable of the period. Similarly, Murrow, the famed broadcaster of CBS' See It Now, supported the case of Milo Radulovich, a US Air Force serviceman accused of being a communist. Later, Murrow directly attacked McCarthy. Much like in J'accuse, Miller and Murrow, at great personal risk, struck back through the media, and won.

Emile, meet Paris. “Enchanté” Paris, meet Emile. “That's hot.” Émile Zola said, “The truth is on the march and nothing will stop it.” Paris said, “Dress cute wherever you go, life is too short to blend in.” The dates and struggles may have changed, but activism in its many forms hasn't. The long history of media manipulation that Zola had a definitive hand in creating is still very much alive and well.