Empire State of mess

Gary Coleman -  the [smaller than a] pint-sized child star of Different Strokes 
has been on a downward spiral for a while now, like many child stars unable to step out of the shadow and past glory set upon him when audiences wanted him. One thing they probably don't tell the child stars [when they're luring them in with candy, promises of fame, riches and adoration] is that later the public will get tired of you, and boy you better get out of the way when they do. See what we like to do is set these stars up, then bring them back down again. Show them who's boss and all that. I know its not always that black and white - but the media, which lets face it, usually builds the fires that we the mob like to light our torches from, have no qualms in printing scandalous career damaging headlines about people they praised in the yesterdays news.

No one more than the Western world [US and UK] know how to do this. Its a freedom of speech, i get it, but its also vile, trashy and just plain ridiculous. I'm not trying to preach, I scan through gossip mags, chat to friends about what they or I have heard through the media pool that our world is submerged in daily. However it's always perturbed me at how one person can be loved or hated within seconds dependent on how he/she is portrayed in the media [via some middleman be it interviewer/journalist/PereZ Hilton...] Which is why the following video is so sad, and made me feel really uncomfortable and angry all at once. I don't pretend to know how Gary Coleman came to such sorry state of affairs, but what I do know is that this show he is being interviewed on, was not the right type of show or environment for the discussion that took place.  The way its been cut together, the music, the movie trailer slow mos and fades - everything about it screams UNETHICAL. That's not even what gall's me. Its the fact the same hosts [minus the instigator] are then joined days later by a blatantly made for TV only shouldn't really be practicing medicine Doctor - who gives his verdict on Colemans mental health. WTF. who the hell are these people?

I'm happy to say we in the UK haven't reached horrendous levels of TV production yet. Although recent formats [Piers Morgan's stupid chat show] shows that we apparently are.  Its obvious Coleman's a man with demons but this woman provoked him most definitely, and the other co-hosts weren't any help. Can people really make this kind of TV and get away with it?  I work in the TV industry, and I'm surrounded by stories of people in the public eye every day but I can't say that this kind of vilifying  pop news is entertaining - but is this what we as the public want? because someone out there clearly thinks we do, and they cant be entirely wrong, but like this? its passive aggressive 'this will get the audiences in' car crash tv - leave it to the David Frosts the world eh?