Why Entertainment Journalism Can’t Be Trusted

‘Til this day, there are people who think Paris Hilton was dropped from by her record label. Among them is Entertainment Weekly writer Shirley Halperin. Halperin was fooled by massive false articles which were published in 2007 about Paris being dropped from her record label, Warner Music. The orginal source of the article came from a fake UK news site, Mirror UK (if I remember correctly).

Shirley Halperin recently wrote an article about singers being dropped from their record label, and she included Paris Hilton in her list of singers. Then, X17, picked up the story and posted it on their website. They drew a big X on a picture of Paris, showing that she is one of the losers. Some fans quickly commented and said Paris wasn’t dropped.

It’s also funny because a few months ago, X17 was one of the first websites that reported the making of a second album. To me, it’s just fascinating how a false fact from a fake site ends up on serious websites like X17 or Entertainment Weekly.

Journalists need to do their research and check the reliability of sources (and draw a big X on Daily Star UK and Mirror UK, instead). Plus, Warner Music had confirmed to Access Hollywood that Paris Hilton was still registered with them. This was reported, but not massively. In fact only Access Hollywood and this website reported it. 

Fascinating stuff!

From: kevin
Time: January 8, 2008, 10:53 pm

Wasn’t it confirmed she WASN’T dropped? How could they just post compelete crap and get away with it. I wish Paris would just confirm to us she wasn’t dropped, she’s working on a new album, it’s coming out soon all in one interview now!! Not a old one but one now!

From: juju
Time: January 9, 2008, 1:13 am

This has been my point before about today’s media. Not just the tabloids, but journalism in general has gone downhill. It’s no longer about completeness, truth or accuracy. It’s all about money.

The media is just another marketplace governed by capitialism. If the media outlets can make more money by portraying a person in a negative light rather than a positive light, then they will do a negative report. Truth never enters into the equation. This is what has happened to Paris. Then it snowballs and it becomes just a giant cirlcle of media quoting each other in an endless loop. Unfortuantely, due to Ric salomon did to her, it has lent a shred a of credibility to the reports that she’s sleazey, etc. it started with that and then other just started piling on.

Also, given the speed and competitiveness, nobody fact-checks before running with a story. This is esepecially true of reports on celebs because they do not enjoy the same level of protection that ordinary people do under privacy and defamation laws. So the media outlets have a monetary incentive to report quickly and salaciously, but no legal or monetary detriment to make them think twice or to slow them down and get their facts straight becasue they don’t need to worry about getting sued.

Put all that togehter with the sexist double standard and you have a recipe for disaster if you’re one of the girls, like Paris, that the media makes more money off of by presenting as a “bad girl”. You’ll never see any media, much less Newsweek, running a multi-page, fear-mongering, spread lamenting “hollywood boys gone wild” and the affect on young boys. When was the last time you heard any media telling any guy in Hollywood that he had a duty to be a role model?

Girls are still more harshly judged to be “good”, which means being under control in the patriarchial assigned roles at all times. To be virtuous, sexless until marraige and mother hood. Notice just how affectice Nicole Richie’s pregnancy has helped her image, that and playing the “god” card with Joel on her arm.

Nicole was always had more problems than paris, but just look at how the media treats them now.

That’s why I think paris should just be herself and do what she wants. She doesn’t owe anybody anything. The media will never giver her a break until she gets married and pregnant or just grows up enough that they move onto someone younger to portray badly. Like they did to Gwen Stefani, J-Lo, Angelina Jolie and countless others.

From: Anonymous
Time: January 9, 2008, 4:31 am

Excellent comment juju. So many point hit it right on. One especially true and a blatant double standard “When was the last time you heard any media telling any guy in Hollywood that he had a duty to be a role model?”
I’d like to see that ask in the media.
More than what they do to Paris if you think journalism has gone downhill with entertainment media, you would be shocked what they are doing with the news media in general. Almost seems just like how the Soviet Union media was. No words to describe it.

From: Dawn
Time: January 10, 2008, 9:04 am

Gosspip sites deliberately paint a wrong picture of Paris.
For example, they implied that Paris was doing four guys the other night. Yet, pictures showed that Paris drove home in her own car.

Now with Lohan, guys actually came right out and told that they bedded her. But the press did not make a big deal of it.

Same with Britney. Apparently Adnan and his agency are hawking nude photos of Brit to magazines, but so far there have been no takers.
But you can bet if Paris did that, the photos would be flashed around the world instantly.

So yes, Paris IS being treated unfairly. Ragazines write about her in a very catty style, full of implications and innuendos for which here is no proof whatsoever.