Paris Hilton Stays Above the Cable News Fray

The on-going schoolyard scuffle between cable news rivals Fox News and CNN was silly from the get-go. But you know things have gone beyond ridiculous when Paris Hilton takes the high road.

The ubiquitous party girl’s name was drawn into the mudslinging two weeks ago, when Fox News took to calling CNN anchor Anderson Cooper “the Paris Hilton of television news” after he derided Fox’s coverage of a spurious report that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) had attended a madrassa as a child. (See the Take Five interview with CNN's Jon Klein in this week's issue.)

The top-rated Fox News again invoked Hilton in a two-page magazine ad that took a swipe at Cooper’s “style over substance”—and not so subtly called into question the newsman’s masculinity.

Surely, Ms. Hilton has suffered far worse treatment in the press. But we had to wonder: What does she think about being dragged into a pissing match over cable news ratings?

My colleague Anne Becker called Hilton’s publicist, Elliot Mintz, who politely declined to join the fray. “I just don’t think we’re going to buy into the debate,” he told her. “No reaction one way or another.”

Of course, Mintz and his client may be preoccupied with more pressing matters.

By Joel Topcik