"Someday, the news media may get around to re-examining the assumption that killing foreigners in their own country is the best patriotic credential imaginable. A front-page New York Times story the other day referred to Sen. John McCain as "the most popular national political figure in the country." McCain built his career in politics while news accounts routinely described him as a "war hero," with frequent references to the captivity and torture that he withstood for years after a North Vietnamese missile brought him down from a plane he was piloting over Hanoi. Media outlets rarely put a fine point on the fact that McCain had been dropping bombs on civilians"
-- Norman Solomon : Source: - Beyond Hero-Worship, CommonDreams.org, August 27, 2004 Ref. https://www.commondreams.org/views04/0827-15.htm
But the media has always done this. Just watch the news, you will see all the news about celebrities and everything that happens in their lives. When one of the big issues in the media is the status of Brad and Jennifers marriage, then hero worship has gotten way out of hand. Hero worship happens with political figures, movie stars, and music stars. I think that hero worship is related to voyeurism in that we worship these people in a way because we love to watch all that happens in someone elses life.