It was not an uncommon occurrence. It was a little after midnight in Lynwood, Calif. and a prisoner was being released from a 45-day sentence.
But she wasn't dressed in her prison-issue garb. She wasn't looking for the local bus. And she certainly wasn't walking alone into the night.
This prisoner sauntered out of prison doors as if on a red carpet in tight, dark jeans, high heels and a cropped gray button-up. Bystanders cheered, cameramen converged on her waiting SUV and she just smiled and blew them all a kiss.
Paris was out of jail and the media was there to document it.
But the real story happened the next morning.
MSNBC Morning Joe co-anchor Mika Brzezinski refused to read the day's lead story featuring Hilton's release, opting instead to attempt to light the prompt on fire, crumbling it and then shredding it in a nearby paper shredder.
"I'm about to snap," she told her co-anchor, over being told to read the Hilton story before one about a Republican senator calling for the troops' withdrawal from Iraq. "I'm not doing it, I'm not doing the story," she asserted. "I just don't believe in covering that story, especially when we have a day like today."
(Click here to see for yourself.)
The story has traveled to Ireland, Australia and even parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The Associated Press reports Brzezinski's gotten more than a thousand e-mails, was named "woman of the week" by a British Web site and has been invited to address a media symposium in Scotland. Commentators are going as far to dub this "the journalistic shot heard around the world."
Was this little-known news anchor taking a stand? Looking for publicity? Or having a psychotic break on national TV?
Her motivations don't matter anymore (though she has been given a regular hour to anchor the news each morning). More importantly, the act has gotten people talking about the "junk food" news diet and the effect it's having on the state of information.
Some news editors and producers are wringing their hands in confusion.
According to the Associated Press, the Hilton story is the "fourth most clicked-upon one of the year, after the Iraq war, the death of Anna Nicole Smith and the Virginia Tech shootings." So should newspapers keep giving the people what they want? Or feature the less "clicked-upon" stories about the state of politics, economics and international relations?
What would you as Collegian reader being attracted to read: An article about football players' favorite nightspots or the University Board of Trustees' budget plan?
The easy answer is a healthy combination of both -- a little junk food on Anna's baby daddy and a helping of leafy greens on the upcoming primaries.
But how do you get the right combination of both? You react. You write a letter. You suggest a story. You participate.
You don't have to resort to a cigarette lighter and a paper shredder. E-mail works just fine.