Hayley in the newspaper

[howard]

Hello Everyone,

About a week ago The Palm Beach Post (in West Palm Beach,Florida, USA), one of the major newspapers in Florida, did a story about Britney Spears. So I wrote a letter to the editor and received a call the following day from the Post that the editor really liked what I wrote and will put it in the paper when he has the room.
Well, today Sunday Feb. 10, 2008 it appeared as follows:

Write about celebs who at least have morals
Britney again! ("Spears kept in hospital 14 more days,"Feb 4.)
I am tired of reading about a person who has little, it any, morals and offers nothing to society.
If the press feels it needs to write about a celebrity, find someone with high standards. Hayley Westenra, a 20-year old singer from New Zealand living in the U.K., is the fastest-selling classical artist in British chart history and the biggest selling artist of all time in New Zealand.
Not only can she really sing but she is true to her family, friends, fans and herself.
It would be refreshing to rad about a Hayley, who doesn't allow drugs, alcohol and jail to influence her life.

The editor did take out what I wrote about how she helps society, i.e. Unicef.

I encourage all fans especially in the US to find a way to get Hayley's name out in the public.

I have all ready called my local radio stations, various venues, PBS, and I am working on other ideas.

Regards to All,
Howard
USA

[howard]

Whoops my mistake....last line of the article should be read not RAD....
Sorry, that my doing...

Howard

[Richard]

Well done Howard! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

(I've sent you a PM about editing posts.)

Richard

[comet]

Good on you Howard,

Keep at the radio stations, Request Hayley's music if you can,

This is ONE thing WE CAN DO that will have some effect..

[Steve H]

Hi Howard,

..and very well done, that publicity is the best kind, lets hope some of the readers find their way to HWI to learn more about this special young lady!

Thanks again for letting us know.

Regards

Steve H

[Caitlin]

Hi Howard!

Thanks for doing this. I tried to do as much of that as I could in Minnesota, but nothing seemed to work. I'm glad it's working for you!

<3 Caitlin

[roger]

Hi Howard,

Well done for having your letter published. It is a pity they removed the part about UNICEF because that in itself says a lot about Hayley's thoughtfulness and her caring nature which was partly the point you were trying to make. Whatever, it is a good bit of publicity for her.

Roger

[grant]

Hello Howard

Congratulations on achieving some valuable publicity for Hayley in the US.

Best wishes
Grant

[milewalker]

roger said:

Hi Howard,

Well done for having your letter published. It is a pity they removed the part about UNICEF because that in itself says a lot about Hayley's thoughtfulness and her caring nature which was partly the point you were trying to make. Whatever, it is a good bit of publicity for her.

Roger

Hi Howard and Roger,

First, I am glad to see a bit of extra publicity for Hayley as well.

This being said, I am not surprised at all that the editors decided to eliminate the mention of UNICEF. Howard's letter is a sort of moderate appeal to American cultural conservatives (or at least an extolling of more traditional values) - an odd thing about the people most likely to be impressed by this is that a fair number of them would not consider any association with the United Nations to be a positive thing.

It should be added that this is merely a guess on my part regarding their motivation for omitting that

Jon

[stevemacdonald]

Hi Howard!

Maybe it's better they write about Britney than Hayley. The more we know about anyone the more their flaws eventually turn up.

Hayley herself once said: "I don't have much time to be bad. I'm not perfect, put it that way."

If they were to put the spotlight on her 24/7 like the do Britney, we may learn a few things that could take her down a peg. Do you really want that?

Steve

[roger]

Yes Steve, Hayley did say that but I suspect it was based on nothing more than her own modesty. The press have had over four years to unearth some scandelous secret but they have not done so. That strongly suggests there are none to find.

Roger

[gra7890]

Hi Howard,
well done, it has to be good to get Hayley's name in the paper for the right reasons !
Somehow I don't think there will be many 'skeletons' in Hayley's family vault for them to find.
Certainly not like Britney anyway!

Graham

[petertong]

All I can say is "well done Howard!"

I don't know Hayley personally but from what I read she strikes me as making rather wise decisions in general. She seems kind of conservative at her core. There's been only one thing that Hayley has said that made me really roll my eyes but its not like I couldn't understand why she said what she did because it could be logically defended.

Anyways, like Roger I highly doubt the press will find much if anything... I highly doubt that Hayley will go down the road of fools... she is too wise for that I think.

[martindn]

Yes, it seems some artists have to indulge in outrageous behaviour to get publicity. Hayley has never done that I'm sure, she seems far too sensible, so we have to drum up publicity for her the hard way.

So well done Howard!

Martin

[milewalker]

petertong said:

All I can say is "well done Howard!"

I don't know Hayley personally but from what I read she strikes me as making rather wise decisions in general. She seems kind of conservative at her core. There's been only one thing that Hayley has said that made me really roll my eyes but its not like I couldn't understand why she said what she did because it could be logically defended.

Anyways, like Roger I highly doubt the press will find much if anything... I highly doubt that Hayley will go down the road of fools... she is too wise for that I think.

Hello all,

I dont think that there is much danger at this point of the US press picking up Hayley coverage to any great extent. She simply isnt "exciting" enough to make that much noise over here. I need to emphasize that "exciting" as I am using it here does not necessarily mean "bad". It cannot however be emphasized enough that American media markets are much more crowded than in most other places in the world - and to be heard at all, you do need to find a way to be heard over the din.

Why does the media cover Britney as opposed to Hayley? For exactly the same reason that any business will sell one product over another - if there wasnt a popular demand for stories about Britney, they simply wouldnt be covering her. It is an unfortunate - yet very simple - fact of human nature that no one is particularly interested in the liquor store which didnt get held up.

----------------

Steve also raises an issue above - what would happen if Hayley were to actually get such coverage? Were that to happen, it would mean that she was actually doing something interesting enough to be covered - and while this doesnt have to be "bad" as I said above, it is also certainly true that responsible and honorable people may have serious differences in the sort of behavior they are willing to tolerate.

This is turn raises another issue - which is a cautionary note to myself perhaps as well as a more general caution. As it happens, I consider myself a "cultural liberal" - which merely means I would not condem anyone for doing the sorts of things in the youth that I did, or that some of my longstanding friends did. Britney and some others have certainly crossed that line - but it is largely a matter of degree. I also wouldnt condemn anyone who did live a more "exemplary" life - that too is often a matter of degree.

One thing which concerns me about this thread is that it does have the potential to devolve into the sort of cultural debate which I suspect that the mods here would prefer to avoid. I am not sure if I agree with that - Howard certainly has the right to send his letter to the editor, and has the right to have his associated opinions about what constitutes the sort of philosophic approach to life he would prefer to see covered
There is no such thing as an incorrect opinion.

However, when he posts that here, inevitably people of like mind will jump on the bandwagon. Note that Petertong above associates "conservative" decisions with "wise" ones. I could offer a rather detailed critique of that position - a thing which I am trying to assiduously avoid here . If I were to do that, wouldnt we be straying into exactly the territory the site management is trying to avoid?


Jon