Sex, Blood and Diamonds

Summertime is a notoriously slow time for news organizations. Little usually happens, and news staffs around the world are on vacation, just like most other working people. Those left in the newsrooms are often digging up the oldest and goofiest stories to fill their pages/air time/web sites.

Therefore, when a celebrity stumbles into their sights, energy is injected into the bodies of otherwise sleepy news teams and the small tidbits that would be overlooked on a normal news day are welcomed like long lost friends from bygone days.

Enter British model Naomi Campbell. Pretty, famous and with a well documented history of violent behavior, Campbell unknowingly set herself up. First she was exposed by another celebrity, then she denied the charge in an interview that she stormed out of – punching the camera on her way out, and then, like a true spoiled princess, told the court that she will not testify.

Any newshound worth a working keyboard could smell that this is going to be good, and it was. Her testimony was in contrast to her earlier public statements, admitting that she did receive diamonds. But while the press had a field day with her and the following testimonies of her two "friends," a couple of points were overlooked.

For example, be them "small dirty looking stones" (as Campbell stated) or "a huge diamond" (as Mia Farrow claimed), Campbell gave the diamonds to charity, donating them to a worthy cause.

I myself received a number of presents since 1997, but sadly couldn't tell you what I said about them the following morning at breakfast, even if I was made to swear to tell the truth, so help me God, thirteen years later. Why are we surprised by small discrepancies in the three accounts of an evening that in retrospect was not a very important one for any of them?

Here is another overlooked point: Why was Charles Taylor invited by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nelson Mandela to a cutesy charity event populated with western celebrities? At the time it was already known that Taylor is inciting an incredibly bloody and ugly war for no good reason in neighboring Sierra Leone. Maybe it was not known to Campbell, but the President of South Africa would definitely know that, so why the endorsement? Why prize Taylor with the chance to flirt with a supermodel?

From the industry's perspective, the point is that once again diamonds are dragged into a bloody mess. There is a long-term price to this, as the negative residue sticks in thin layers that slowly add up to a lasting bad impression.

Thankfully, the general press quickly moved on to criticize Campbell for going on vacation and having the audacity of actually wearing a bathing suit while at sea. Really, how could she do it to us as we are stuck in our newsrooms, desperately searching for the next news item?