We all know that tabloid magazines aren’t exactly bastions of truth and integrity, but to what extent do they outright lie? How many of their rumours are true? Gawker devised a formula to estimate the veracity of five of America’s most popular trashy mags.
Tabloid media
Goodbye to Hello founder: Junco dies, age 67
Eduardo Sanchez Junco, the man behind Hello magazine - one of Britain’s most widely read celebrity rags - has died, leaving behind the legacy of a shrewd businessman with a hefty checkbook.
And the Wankley goes to… tabloid media for its Dannii baby obsession
Monday’s joyful addition to the Minogue clan has media hearts aflutter, with editors robbing the entertainment pages of what should be on their beat and sending it up to the front page — three days after the birth!
The phoniest tabloid tales of the year
From Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s endless breakups to by-the-minute updates on Katie Holmes’s uterus, Jezebel takes a look back at the year that was in the celebrity news that… wasn’t.
The crash of the Brad and Britney economy
The price paid for paparazzi photos by US glossies has plummeting by 31%, according to a survey by The Daily Beast. Has the recession caused the celebrity media bubble to burst, or have celebrities just become more boring?
Starsuckers: British tabloids caught in the act by filmmakers
The sewers of London’s tabloid newspapers are explored in a documentary film called Starsuckers Predictably, the silence of the tabloids has been deafening.
Why we’re all to blame for Balloon Boy
It’s now well-established that the whole “Balloon Boy” saga was a big con by father Richard Heene. But we’re all to blame for giving this story, and stories like this, oxygen, says Foster Kamer.
Has Politico turned tabloid?
It’s generally regarded to be one of the best and most successful political news sites on the web, but lately Politico has slipped into sensationalism, says Splice Today, with headlines like “Roman Polanski backers gave $34k to Barack Obama”.
Angry Dad: Paedophilia hysteria shames us all
Over 200,000 Australian kids are living in poverty, yet we’re forming lynch mobs over one creepy old man? We need to get our priorities sorted out, says Angry Dad.
The pornification of news
It’s ironic that the paid-online-news movement is being led by Rupert Murdoch, a man who has pioneered the production of worthless, sensationalist “tragedy porn”, says Simon Dumenco.
BREAKING EXCLUSIVE! How headline writers create news
The headline writers at the New York Post sure know how to beat-up a simple yarn into a full-blown media meltdown.
The (overcrowded) grassy knoll on the Vic bushfires
As the fires still rage, the body count mounts, and most media outlets discuss the merits of Australia’s “stay or go” fire strategy, a select few commentators (read: loonies) are actually seriously discussing the possibility of “forest jihad”…
Domestic violence crosses cultural barriers
How can the problem be resolved when moronic tabloids across the land turn issues like domestic violence into yet another exercise in shoring up “Australian values”? asks Irfan Yusuf.
Crikey Says: Crikey Says
How to have your outrage and eat it too.
