Downturn of the tabloid, at least

All of a sudden, the people who actually wrote the crap for the News of the World tabloid are coming out and 'fessing up on the stuff they wrote and the kind of nonsense they tried to write--and what they had to put up with. It's a story on Yahoo! News today: With Brooks arrested, tabloid insiders open up. LONDON (AP) — With their former boss under arrest, tabloid reporters are beginning to reveal secrets of what it was like to work in Rebekah Brooks' newsrooms. Disguises, bullying, lies dropped into copy — all were part of the pressure-cooker atmosphere that prevailed, according to former journalists who spoke to The Associated Press. Michael Taggart, who worked at The Sun in 2003, said the paper under Brooks was marked by "ruthlessness and misogyny." "The reporters who were prepared to subject themselves and others to the most ridicule were the ones earmarked for success," said Taggart, who now works as a consultant for London-based MRM. Insiders say the whatever-it-takes mantra was common across the tabloid world. But the pressure at News International — publisher of the Sun and the News of the World, the now defunct paper at the center of the phone hacking scandal — was particularly intense. Taggart described routinely participating in overnight stakeouts while at the Sun, something he said was rare at other papers he had worked for. He said other tabloids were just as hungry for scandal and celebrity, but they tended to rely on "great contacts, rather than covert operations." At Rupert Murdoch's tabloids, refusing to play ball meant being pushed to the sidelines. Attitudes toward women — never thought of as particularly enlightened at The Sun, a paper still famous for its topless page 3 models — did not improve under Brooks, Taggart said. "We were regularly encouraged to refer to women with misogynistic names like 'tarts,' 'slappers' or 'hookers' in our copy if there was conceivably any question mark over their sexual proclivities," he said. "We were expected to childishly objectify women. So blonde-haired women were described as 'beauties' and generously chested women 'looked swell', whether they'd wanted the attention or not." Faking facts was also part of tabloid life under Brooks, reporters said. A third News of The World reporter, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because he too is still working in the media industry, said some editors at the News of the World deliberately inserted bogus details to sensationalize copy. At least for Britain, this means one less skanky newspaper. Over here in the States, could it mean--hopefully--that one day, The National Enquirer will have to close it's doors, too? One can only hope. Link: http://news.yahoo.com/brooks-arrested-tabloid-insiders-open-104104938.html

Irresponsible ignorance at the grocery newstand

I was at the grocery store today and saw the front page of the National Enquirer today.

Usually they make me laugh.

Not so, today.

The headlines:

"Prez's Teacher Reveals:  Pres. Obama's Muslim Lies"

Immediately, I knew we were in for trouble.

There was more, naturally:

"His Koran Studies"    (Because, you know, it's important we never, ever read any information on any other religion of any kind.  Of course.   We all get that, right?  Even if you're NOT a Mormon--because that's what they believe).

Finally, the piece de' resistance:

"His Christian Mom was outraged"

So many things come to mind.

First, I know darned good and well people are going to believe this crap.  They won't even have to read the articles, either.  They'll just see the cover story and those ridiculous headlines and just reaffirm what Glenn Beck and Fox "News" told them.

And off they go, one day to vote in a booth near you.  And me.

Sick.

Uneducated, redneck, uninformed baffoons who merely see this will be off on their Right-wing, extremist, hating tangents, believing this stuff and reacting (over-reacting, more like) to this stuff.

It's one thing for the Enquirer to print the crap they do about aliens and movie stars, it's quite another to feed into ignorant--patently ignorant--views that uninformed and uneducated people believe about politics and politicians.

I have to say, I think it's dangerous for the Enquirer to have crossed this boundary.

And please, if you react to this posting, please don't tell me anyone won't react to these headlines and their perceptions, totally unaffected by race.  It's a factor, for sure.  It may not be the only one, sure, but race is a factor, certainly.  A significant and ugly one, at least for some--and for too many.

I fear for this country.