To be really angry that a 58 year old man can verbally attack a 17 year old?

[jonicomelately]

Admittedly I know very little about the X Factor but as a mum I'm really disturbed that somebody can use a national magazine to destroy the reputation of such a young person.

Sorry, should've done a link

I'm afraid to say he's right. She's local and well known for ride, violent and abusive behaviour herself.

rude not ride!

X Factor, Daily Mail, Heat,Closer
Hmmmmm - can't get excited.

What troubles me is that X Factor is the biggest show on TV and the DM has the biggest circulation of a National in the UK. Don't know much about Closer except the fact it seems popular.
That our popular media think it's OK for a young girl to be talked about in this way seems like thin end of the wedge for me.

DM isn't the widest circulation newspaper, The Sun is.

Cher, if anything, has been protected - there is a hell of a lot more that could come out...

Should have said 'one of the biggest' circulations.

She obviously isn't an angel, but it just feels really, really wrong to me. The attack is very personal. Perhaps it's just me then.

I think the girls on these types of show are set up to be hate figures. It always disturbs me to see people gleefully tearing them down, that's why I avoid most stuff like Xfactor. The most serious crime they've committed AFAICS is being female in public. It's not just you, it feels wrong to me too.

It's all just a soap opera.

yabu she put herself out there, she is all that is wrong with music today not her personally but what she stands for)

I just can't get over the fact she's only 17. She's a child.

As I said, I don't know that much about her and I'm not an habitual reader of the DM. Perhaps that's why I was when I saw the article.

Simon Cowell is everything that's wrong with music today. The girls have no power and are being cynically used. I really can't summon up any hate for them.

i can't feel any sympathy either, they made a decision to go on the show, thay know what will happen, oh yeah they make money.

yanbu
i dont think louis should be allowed to say these things as a judge, it would be different if someone else just saying whos not involved with the show or after the show finished or something but this is not professional from louis
anyway i like cher, her performances are good not really bothered about her personality?

I think YABU. Contestants have to take the (constant and personal) criticism along with the rewards when they decide to enter the x factor. The show has been on for ages and you have to be really stupid dreadfully naive to think you won't be pilloried just like everyone else.

It's not just the girls that get it. They're all subjected to intense criticism. They aren't 'people' in the context of the show; they simply become contestants to be critiqued, laughed at, hated, etc.

I honestly don't understand why anyone would want to go on the show.

17 is not a child for crying out loud.

However, I do think it is very spiteful. But not as bad as the heap of vitriol which has been poured onto Katie Waissel's head, for no more reason than she is a bit stage schooly.

Tbh, I think Cher can cope. She wanted stardom, well here it is.

just stop watching it, we did as the people who win are never the best, It is just utter crap, I hate the fact that cos of it we get stuck with a crap Christmas number one(except last year)
if people didn't watch it, the makers would soon get the hint.

I think that's fair comment Damsel. I really think X Factor is like the freak shows of the past in some respects.

I do however question whether a 17 year old has the maturity to understand and cope with the pitfalls, namely not just being critiqued by the judges but being very cruelly personally attacked in the press. Once they're over a certain age, fair enough, you pays your money to take your choice but surely this shouldn't happen to a kid?

I have sympathy for the people who get used up as comedy fodder in the earlier rounds when they have obvious special needs/ very low intelligence and don't really understand. But that isn't the case with Cher and I have a 17 year old so I know that he understood the rules of the X factor game years ago.

no, not much sympathy. She looks pretty able to take care of herself.

YABU- they put themselves up for it when they go on shows like the X factor.

Agree with OP. She's 17, ffs, who wasn't moody etc at that age? I'd hate to think my "persona" was crystallised at 17 by ill thought out comments by someone who should be more circumspect. It's a really difficult and delicate age when you are trying to figure out who you really are. LW is in a relative position of power and is supposed to be nurturing these kids not crucifying them in the press. And (from the little I know about Mr Walsh), he's a bit of a prima donna himself, isn't he? What's his excuse?

Don't watch X Factor or any programmes of that ilk but as far as I can see, once you've started down the road of calling this entertainment then, sadly, virtually anything goes. She signed up for it at the end of the day, and I'm sure she'll make a mint for a few months. Hopefully that will provide her with some consolation.

Do I like it? No. But that's why I don't watch it (and don't read the gutter rags that buy into the whole event).

It is not quite like other contestant shows, it is more Big Brother than, say, Dancing on Ice- it's pretty obvious that some contestants are kept on the show neither because they are good at what they do or because they are well-liked people (unlike some of the less talented performers of Dancing on Ice), but quite simply because they are people who can be used as hate objects. I do think that is exploitation.

And Simon Cowell has to be lying through his teeth when he says he likes some of those performances- what he likes is the sound of money.

There are plenty of teenagers in the music business with more professionalism than this, and I tend to think that it goes with the territory.

That said though, I think she does not come across as somebody who will handle the pressures well, and she should be getting better advice from the adults around her if she wants to make the most of the opportunities available to her.