Sunday, May 10, 2009

'Sleazy tabloid accusations . . .'

. . . have a predictable way of proving true:
When a person's image is a commodity -- as was the case with John Edwards, the millionaire of humble origins whose family life supposedly kept him grounded -- the ideas of privacy and good taste become part of the marketing effort. The tabloids, rude and prying, are able to break through such images to the truth behind them in ways the conventional media cannot. . . .
"False, absolute nonsense," an Edwards spokesperson told the Enquirer at the beginning of the Edwards-affair affair in October 2007, while the candidate was still working the heartland on his way to a second-place finish, ahead of Hillary Clinton, in the Iowa caucuses. Against that blanket denial, the paper cited "a source close to the woman" and "one bombshell e-mail message" to support what it called a "shocking allegation -- if proven true."
As previously noted, newspapers were generally more successful when they were more tabloid-ish, and before they gave op-ed space to dishonest twits like Frank Rich.

3 comments:

  1. He did not have sexual relations with that woman. Oh wait...that didn't work for the Dem politician who said it either.

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  2. I love the National Enquirer. You might recall that, in September 2008, Sarah Palin's favorable ratings fell by 20 percentage points in the three weeks when the Enquirer ran several articles detailing that clan's trailer trashiness: the drugs, the sex, the rock and roll.

    You're right, the tabloids usually do have a way of being right!

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  3. When I was a kid, the Enquirer was nearing bankruptcy due to repeated law suits for faulty reporting. In order to survive, they cleaned-up their act.

    Today not a few of us would trust the National Enquirer's report before we would trust the New York Times'. To date, no motivation has caused the New York Times to mitigate the pure bullshit they dish-up. Damn thing has devolved from the Newspaper of Record to the just another birdcage liner. The Grey Lady as Bag Lady. Gee, thanks Pinky... Thanks a lot.

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