Uncle Bill's mailbag

I got an e-mail from a college kid asking me about media stuff. My first... I've got butterflies and everything.

They wrote:
I am currently taking a Media Law and
Ethics class and am researching the ethical habits of reporters from my
hometown area. Being that you write for "The Gazz" can you give me your
opinion and response to this question:How common is it for tabloids to
publish completely false stories on celebrities without concern for
minimizing harm and showing compassion? Do you think this is a particular
problem in WV? Thanks so much for your time!

My sort of spiffy answer:
I think tabloids report only false information occasionally. They're a lot
slicker and a lot more skilled than people give them credit. What they
report is often mean-spirited, embarrassing and often unsavory, but it's not
usually with the intent of being false. It's true, more often than not. Of
course, with the hyper-competitive nature of the tabloids, they can be a bit
sloppier than other kinds of "news" media. They can be misled a bit easier
and sometimes seem a little slower to verify their information --or print a
retraction.

Compassion or minimizing harm seldom enters into the equation these days.
Most of what they do is prey on the darker parts of our own psyche and sell
news-based entertainment around that. We want the successful, the wealthy,
the pretty to fail. We want them to get caught doing what they shouldn't and
we want them punished collectively for all of our transgressions. To want to
be a celebrity these days is to ask to be a sacrificial goat. Tabloid sleaze
provides a balm for the pain of being anonymous and unremarkable.

As far as West Virginia and celebrity coverage... not really. I write a lot
of what would be considered "celebrity" or entertainment-based stories,
mostly "B" or "C" level musicians (meaning celebrity) doing local shows. Our focus is never
evisceration for fun and profit. Often we're introducing or reintroducing
performers to a potential audience. The information presented is largely
superficial, taken from press releases, other publications and brief
interviews over the phone. There's not much need to dig and little
opportunity. We save the good ol' fashioned muckraking for the locals, not
for the crazy lady who does too much coke and keeps forgetting to wear her
underwear. If we have a flaw, it's because since we are in a small, rural
area, we tend to follow the adage, "If you don't have anything nice to say,
you're better off saying nothing at all."

That's how I see it, anyway, but in balance, I don't read a lot of tabloid stuff. My time spent with your average pseudo-famous person is so brief I haven't got the time to figure out who they're fucking, what drugs they're on or if they're wearing underwear (Grace Potter was one of the few exceptions... She totally wasn't wearing a bra and I'd have put five bucks down the lower half coordinated, but it never came up while we talked).