Jonathan Black rear-ends celebrity status

Jonathan Black rear-ends celebrity status

Well, it’s not exactly Britney Spears shaving her head, but when Jonathan Black allegedly bounced his vehicle—what the Toronto Star characterized as his “luxury” car—off the back of a GMC Safari van last Thursday, he verged, however briefly, into the tawdry world of Lindsay Lohan, celebutantes, the paparazzi and whatever else it is that fuels the 24/7 not-so-beau monde of TMZ, Perez Hilton and X17online. Jonathan hasn’t hit Brangelina status quite yet, but the reach of the story should give the Canadian media pause. The story has made it all the way to The Sydney Morning Herald and the Malaysia Star.

Here at home, CBC.ca and the Toronto Star, in their fever to get up on the story, managed to misidentify Alana Black’s boyfriend in a photograph as the alleged hitter and runner. Torontoist.com, in a tasteless play on words, reported:

Conrad Black’s son, Jonathan, 30, has been charged with failing to stop after an accident, driving while under suspension, careless driving, and operating a motor vehicle without insurance following a car accident on Thursday. Community leaders are calling for an enquiry into the unusually high rates of arrest and incarceration among Black males.

Race stereotyping. Hilarious!

Will all this bring the Brit tabloids even further down on the heads of the benighted Blacks? Who knows? In this regard I commend The Atlantic’s latest cover story, on the aforementioned Ms. Spears. David Samuel’s first-hand reporting on the sense and sensibility of the paparazzi and their commercial sponsors is a nausea-inducing indictment of the entire Internet-driven economy of sleaze, depravity, envy and stupidity.

Am I adding another car to the train wreck? Well, I’m a blogger and thus pressured as much as anybody else on the Internet to produce eye candy in a medium that lives off it and for it. So, sure—mea culpa.

Conrad Black’s son charged in Toronto hit-run [CBC]• Conrad Black’s son charged in Toronto hit-and-run [Malaysia Star]• Conrad Black’s son in ‘hit-and-run’ [Sydney Morning Herald]• Black’s son faces four charges related to hit-and-run [Globe and Mail]• Black’s son has own run-in with the law [Toronto Star]• Shooting Britney [The Atlantic]• Get Out And Byelect Somebody, Sucks To Be Tibet, U.S. Economic Collapse Accelerates [Torontoist]