Pete Doherty and the media shambles

The very fact that I know the name Pete Doherty, lead singer of a band called Babyshambles, ex-lead singer of a band called The Libertines, who has been going out with model Kate Moss, is, to me, no clearer indication of the single greatest problem with the modern media.

I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in Pete Doherty, I really don't. And that's not because I don't listen to the latest music, or because I disapprove of drug use, or because I think the tabloids are beneath below me. It's because he just isn't worth much attention – not mine, anyway.

I got hold of a copy of The Libertines album The Libertines and was oddly surprised to find that it has some moments of real beauty in it. It is a right mess, quite childish, repetitive and reeking of drugs but like, say, Syd Barrett's solo albums, there are the odd bits of devilish craftmanship in there that linger. It was a sign of possible great things to come.

However, Pete and the other main bloke in the group had a fight, Pete's drug use got terrible, Pete robbed his mate's house and he was kicked out of The Libertines. Please bear in mind that I have actively – actively – avoided reading any of the acres of newsprint given over to him this year, so how I know all this is quite simply beyond me.

What's more I know he is in a new band called Babyshambles which I have never heard play a note, in fact I'm not even sure they have made a single single. I know that in the band's infrequent appearances they have been absolutely panned. I also know that Pete was invited to sing with Elton John at that Hyde Park concert in the summer and just made a complete arse of himself.

And yet this hopeless, incapable junkie has taken up permanent residency in the media. You simply can't escape newspapers, magazines or TV telling you all about how terrible he is, how rubbish he is. What the fuck is going on?

What really struck me though was a feature in The Guardian today. Following the same tedious and overrun theme it was headlined “Wasted”. What was particularly laughable as well as hugely revealing was the sub-head:

“In a rare interview, Babyshambles frontman Peter Doherty talks to Simon Hattenstone about death, love and why he can't go a day without drugs.”

Rare interview? Rare interview! The only man to have given more interviews in the past three months has been David Davis and David Cameron. In fact, to prove my point, today I also saw that the NME was running a feature on Pete Doherty as his band attempts to actually make some fucking music in the studio. Yet another rare interview.

“Peter Doherty talks to Simon Hattenstone about death, love and why he can't go a day without drugs.” That is all this poor sod has ever spoken about. And he hasn't been very prosaic about any of it.

I can answer the last part by the way in just five words: Because He Is A Junkie.

Why on earth is a broadsheet running an interview with this man when there is absolutely no chance of him saying anything that hasn't already been printed, commented on, rebutted and reprinted the next week? Any why use its main interviewer? What is the point?

The point is very, very clear: sales. People want to read about this lost soul, even if they learn absolutely nothing new. Pete Doherty is hot property, even though no one has really got a clue why.

Pete Doherty is a media creation beyond all previous media creations. His “appeal” covers all media. There isn't a single media “outlet” that would not feature his stoned, fat, fucked and dopey face. He has been treated to the modern media's latest warfare: carpet-bombing.

By relentlessly going on and on about the same person, people eventually have to know what on earth is going on. And so they look for something to explain what the fuss is about. And around the mad roundabout goes again.

And the worst part of it is that Pete Doherty has somehow, through his addled mind, recognised that he is nothing without this relentless torrent of press coverage. If it stops, if the tap is turned off even for a second, it will all go and all he'll be is a hopeless junkie who once made a half-good album, who once shagged a junkie model.

A pretty sad indication of this was the NME interview in which Babyshambles let the music magazine into a recording session for their album. I remember when I was doing alot of music journalism being depressed at how most of it was nothing to do with the music at all. Journalists rarely, if ever, actually ask musicians what they were actually doing with their music, with the instruments they play.

Instead it is all about how crazy they are, how many drugs they've taken, groupies they've boned and what they think about current affairs – especially hilarious since musicians tend to be the least informed people on the planet when it comes to matters outside their own little world.

I was particularly amazed that there weren't more features of the type “album in progress” – reporting what was going on in the recording studios across the land.

And then it became clear when I was talking to some band or other. Musicians (real musicians, at least) don't want people watching and noting down what they do in a recording studio. They want to, need to, feel free to do whatever pops into their end, without constraints. And if there is a third party you don't know, especially one observing in a critical manner who will then write publicly about the experience, well, you just can't relax, get into the groove.

The fact then that Mr Pete Doherty invites journalists into the one area of his life where he might, just possibly be able to patch his existence back together is a sign that he is soon to be just another victim of media carpet-bombing.

Where will it have got us? Nowhere. But I would argue it is worse than that. The media's main duty is – or should be – to inform, not just entertain. All the millions of words wasted on this bloke are millions not written about things of real consequence. And I do, honestly, believe that is a tragedy far greater than this soon-to-be-dead singer.