Barack Obama criticises Kardashians
President Barack Obama has launched a scathing attack on Kim Kardashian and her family over accusations the clan's reality TV shows have helped create a generation of youngsters who are obsessed with wealth and celebrity.
Obama singled out socialite Kim Kardashian and her rapper boyfriend Kanye West for particular criticism in an interview with Amazon.com during a visit to one of the company's warehouses in Tennessee.
Obama bemoaned the rise of reality TV shows and insisted
celebrities who parade their wealth in front of fans have
inadvertently changed the aspirations of young people.
He says, "The American Dream involved some pretty basic stuff. A
good job where you felt some security. A good education... People
felt if they worked hard they could get there... I don't think
people went around saying to themselves, 'I need to have a
10,000-square-foot house'... I think, there has also been a shift
in culture. We weren't exposed to the things we didn't have in the
same way that kids these days are.
"There was not that window into the lifestyles of the rich and
famous. Kids weren't monitoring every day what Kim Kardashian was
wearing, or where Kanye West was going on vacation, and thinking
that somehow that was the mark of success."
Kardashian and her relatives have built up a reality TV empire over
the last few years with shows including Keeping Up with the
Kardashians and Kourtney and Kim Take New York, and she also
broadcast her much-hyped 2011 wedding to basketball player Kris
Humphries as a small screen special.
As for West, it is not the first time Obama has clashed with the
rapper - in 2009 the President famously branded him a "jack**s" for
storming the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards during Taylor
Swift's acceptance speech.