Is It Live ...?

By: Matthew Felling
Topics: In The News

(AP)

In 1970, love meant 'never having to say you're sorry.'

In 2007, celebrity means 'never being off-the-record.'

As with Alec Baldwin's less-than-fatherly feedback to his daughter earlier this year – where he called his 11-year old a 'rude, thoughtless little pig'—we've got ourselves another family dispute dragged out into the public, courtesy of a voicemail for a family member.

A&E's Duane Chapman – apparently he's known as "Dog the Bounty Hunter" from his reality show – is in big trouble because of a horribly intolerant voicemail he left on his son's phone.

A&E cable network has suspended production of its hit reality series "Dog the Bounty Hunter" after star Duane "Dog" Chapman repeatedly used a racial slur during a private phone conversation with his son that was recorded and posted online.

Chapman issued a statement Wednesday apologizing for the comments after the National Enquirer posted a clip of the conversation in which he uses a racial epithet six times in reference to his son's girlfriend.

I've never seen Chapman's show. Actually, I barely knew it existed – aside from a casual reference on "The Soup" here and there. (Cliff's Notes for people who don't watch bad TV.) And now I'm quite glad of this non-decision. Between his apology where he said he wasn't attacking his son's girlfriend's race but, ahem, her character and his saying he was going to work with his spiritual advisor – religion is, frequently the last refuge for some – he's not a sympathetic soul.

But this isn't a "How Dare He" column – those are being written everywhere, and I'm not sure what more I could add aside from outrage – as much as it's a "Where Are We" column, to orient us in MediaLand.

Here's a partial list:

We've got Alec Baldwin's career temporarily slowed by a "rude, thoughtless" voicemail of his own.

We've got Senators who lose office due to "rude, thoughtless" asides to college students.

We've got David Hasselhoff publicly shamed when his daughter recorded him too drunk to eat a hamburger.

We've got photos of Miss New Jersey and an American Idol contestant posing lewdly in front of a camera.

We've got TMZ.com taking every celebrity mishap and uploading it online (frequently making it on-air in its TV show.)

And we have a culture where celebrity -- doing something, anything to draw attention and notoriety -- is seen as the ultimate aspiration for many, many Americans.

So note to all public figures and all who aspire to become famous: Be ready for every part of your personality to come out, no matter if it's one too many cocktails before you leave a club … or it's your ugly xenophobic side on a voicemail to a family member … or it's a poorly thought out photo session.

For better or for worse, everything is in the public domain now. We're living in an age of real-time "Mommie Dearest" coverage. Gone are the days of unseen and unknown celebrity peccadilloes.

You don't get to have secrets anymore.

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by slipster01 November 3, 2007 7:28 PM EDT: OK, so tell me, since when are our Free Speech rights, in the privacy of our own homes, thrown out the window in cases like this? Does this mean we can no longer speak our free minds in private?

Have the Al Sharptons of the world so whipped everyone into racial frenzies that we have lost our right to Free Speech?

Last I knew, telephone conversations are private, and taping them without the knowledge and consent of the other party is illegal.; Reply to this comment