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As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?

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wickedkez
06/25/09

In reply to As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?
I'm sorry, Chace Crawford's hottness is debatable? Who wants to debate!
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Green Goth Brit Chick - AlternatEve
06/25/09

@wickedkez: I do, he's just not my type. Sorry :(
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That-Dude
06/25/09

In reply to As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?
Dodai: InTouch, along with gossip websites, and the public are the ultimate winners. Mags and websites provide a service that people want. If folks weren't interested, we wouldn't have the mags or the Perez's.

Hell, even people who claim to be above the fray or "to have never watched an episode of (fill in the blank) show" feel the need to comment in Jezebel's mid-week round-up.
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Cerridwen
06/25/09

@That-Dude: It's totally not that simple and I hate that excuse that comes from tabloid-peddlers and paparazzi that they are just "giving the people what they want." Sure, they are fulfilling a voracious need for this gossip but I think the tabloids play a role in creating that very demand. It's a vicious cycle where both sides play their part in sustaining this culture of voyeurism and schadenfreude. The paparazzi seem to take an entirely amoral approach to the whole deal, asserting that they are just providing a neutral service, when in fact they could have the moral stones to not participate in such a damaging industry. But they want to get rich with the "money shot," so they participate in what amounts to legalized stalking. Celebrities themselves participate in cultivating demand through their publicists and carefully-orchestrated media appearances and information leaks. Tabloid editors create salacious stories that appeal to the lowest-common denominator. And the public eats it up, providing further incentive for the tabloid media to continue the vicious cycle. Meanwhile, real lives are ruined as a result.
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That-Dude
06/25/09

@Cerridwen: Meanwhile, real lives are ruined as a result.

. . . please explain.

Sure the tabloids are complicit, but its their business model. If documentaries about classical artists in magazine form were huge sellers, they would move to that model, but its hard to knock them for doing what it takes to get by.

If everyone is somehow "in" on the cycle, as you make it seem, what's the issue?
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Cerridwen
06/25/09

@That-Dude: I don't think you can argue legitimately that real people are not impacted negatively by the intensity of current celebrity culture. Case in point: Britney Spears. A host of factors went into her breakdown but I think it's fairly obvious that her mental instability was voraciously exploited and consumed by both the tabloid media and the public. Are you really arguing that is a morally-neutral thing to do? I think the Gosselin family is another interesting example. Yes, they made a deal with the devil for fame but would they have made such a deal if that option wasn't available to them? Now their children have been publicly exploited because of the celebrity machine.

Just because it is their business model does not make it ok and morally benign. Is Nike blameless because it utilizes a business model that includes sweat labour just so it can make a fuckload of money off a public that is willing to buy luxury goods without questioning where they come from and the larger impact?

Even if everyone is "in" on it, I still believe it's contributing to a culture in which people seem willing to do anything, sacrifice anyone, or degrade themselves publicly to be famous. It encourgaes vapidity, solidifies negtive stereotypes, unfairly punishes women...need I go on?
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SevenNationArmy
06/25/09

In reply to As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?
The thing thats most disturbing is the AMOUNT of emotional investment (some) people have with (certain) celebrities. The level of love/hatered I read when it comes to Brangelina, and the sheer level of absolute HATE people have for the Gosselins. Kate in particular.
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Maritsa
06/25/09

@SevenNationArmy hates summer: I don't particularly like Kate but I have found myself vociferously defending her as of late because (1) I don't think she's that bad relative to her lump of a husband and (2) it bothers me how much she is villified and (3) people just EFFING HATE her with a passion. It's like she personally did something to them. I don't get it.
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Mary McCarthyite
06/25/09

In reply to As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?
The question is: how can we construct a story around a set of emotions that our readers are going to relate to? It can come from a genuine tip, or a photo. Or it can come out of our ass.

Clearly, their readers can relate to shit.
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otherginger
06/25/09

In reply to As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?
The more "Brad and Angie Split Up" covers I see, the more I am convinced that they are happily married and will stay happily married. And beautiful. And wealthy. We'll all just have to live with it.
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PreposterousHypothesis
06/25/09

@otherginger: I agree. People in happy relationships, to the outside, are boring. So they have to make up stupid shit to create a non-existent drama.
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ellaesther
06/25/09

In reply to As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?
(Also, I think that "bachelor" just means "not married," or in this day and age, "not romantically involved with anyone." So, I think it's ok to call young Chase a bachelor. Not that I'm a word nerd or anything).
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Flackette Goes Retro
06/25/09

In reply to As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?
I definitely earned a few smacks on the rear end as a child, so if the "hitting" was spanking, I'm not so disturbed. What I AM disturbed by is the extent to which these parents have whored out their children.
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HillGirl
06/25/09

In reply to As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?
I am so glad that there are no pictures of my mom spanking me out in the public. I probably was spanked on an average of 2-3 times a week. Why would they even publish that?
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Scout 3.0
06/25/09

In reply to As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?
I wonder what the sales numbers would have been for People magazine if they had named Robert Pattinson the Sexiest Bachelor instead of Chase Crawford?
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LBB
06/25/09

@Scout 3.0: Astronomical. But Pattinson is already a big enough heartthrob that his publicists/handlers/whoever didn't NEED to push for him to be on the cover of People.
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Zombie Ms. Skittles
06/25/09

In reply to As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?
In-Touch LIED to me?! Up is down! Left is wrong! Right is October! Ohh the humanity! Someone fetch me my fainting couch, I'm afraid I've caught the vapors!
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Mary McCarthyite
06/25/09

@Zombie MissSkittles is not your kind of lady: You know what other topsy-turvy news we've learned today? That September is the January in fashion and that Anna Wintour is "like...Madonna."

Assume fetal position.
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ellaesther
06/25/09

In reply to As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?
Yes: We all lose.

But mostly that little girl. Surely I'm not the only one who has thought that there is a measure of abuse (and I say that cautiously, as actual abuse is a much more enormous thing) in signing your children up to star on TV before they're even old enough to answer the phone, much less have a say in the matter?

And on another front: Lots of parents snap and smack their kids -- they shouldn't, but sometimes they do. Parenting is fucking hard, and sometimes parents, even good parents, fail. But taking pictures of it? And then selling those pictures? And then PUTTING THEM ON THE FRONT OF YOUR MAGAZINE? That is so cruel to that poor child, and all for the sake of profit, that it makes me ill.
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vamusical
06/25/09

@ellaesther: So true. My mom, who I adore and has always been great, has a bit of a temper and straight-up slapped me one time for something minor. I cannot imagine having the whole world knowing that and dissecting it, from either the mom or child's point of view.
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Rare Affinity
06/25/09

@ellaesther: I wholly agree. Adults know they are doing a deal with the devil when they agree to sell details of their private lives for hard cash. Small children should be given anonymity by law.
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Rare Affinity
06/25/09

In reply to As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?
CNN news yesterday reported that the next series of the Gosselin reality show would run for FORTY episodes despite or even because of the fact they are divorcing. I know nothing about the family other than what I have read on Jezebel, but I am surprised they are THAT popular they could command so many episodes.
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BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit)
06/25/09

In reply to As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?
This obsession with demonizing mothers is so freaking disturbing. I don't buy any of these mags, ever, or go to their websites, and never will. They are all basically the National Enquirer, without the interesting alien stories.
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ellaesther
06/25/09

@BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit): I'm not so sure it's a case of demonizing mothers, per se, as it is demonizing those who are better off than us. All mothers (parents)make bad choices or do stupid things, and most feel awful about it afterward. But they feel bad about it while surrounded by bills and laundry and a crying baby and nary a nanny in sight. And no one wants their damn autograph or will pay them a flipping dime to walk down a carpet anywhere, ever. So we set up our idols, and then we eat them alive, because it makes us feel better about ourselves.

Now, having said that, I think that one of the consequences of all this is a de facto demonization of mothers who are less than some narrowly defined version of perfect -- like, when the tabs yell at Star A for being "too fat!" and Star B for being "too thin!" the intent is to sell magazines via the tried-and-true method of humiliation-as-entertainment -- but one of the de facto outcomes is regular women in checkout lines start looking at their own asses and judging themselves.

Not that I've fumed about this much, or anything.
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BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit)
06/25/09

@ellaesther: I say mothers because Brad is not treated like Angie, and Jon is not treated like Kate, that's all.
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ellaesther
06/25/09

@BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit): Oh yes, that's true. Absolutely.
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SunburnedCounsel
06/25/09

@BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit): yeah, ever since I read "The Mommy Myth" I just can't even look at these covers without getting spluttery with rage. Because the demonization and brutal critiques has major ramifications for "normal" women and mothers and has really fucked shit up in the last thirty years. It's not benign at all.
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Sputnik_Sweetheart
06/25/09

In reply to As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?
"John Mayer's seeing someone else, and for a woman of her age, that must be awful ... So you construct a narrative of what a woman her age may be feeling."

Shorter tabloid: Jennifer's reproductive organs are turning into dust and she will die alone and unhappy, possibly eaten by wolves.
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AuburnPonytail
06/25/09

@Sputnik_Sweetheart: I thought dried up old spinsters were eaten by their cats?
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CollegeCamel
06/25/09

@AuburnPonytail: I thought it was Alsatians?
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BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit)
06/25/09

In reply to As The Tabloid Wars Heat Up, Do We All Lose?
They should have used Chuck Bass.
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HillGirl
06/25/09

@BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit): Yes! I don't think he's even in the issue.
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