This is a must-read blog post.
He writes:
The national enquirer which regularly engages in character assassination of the most vile kind, which deals out deathly doses of unlove, is read by millions of good Americans, standing at the counter picking up their groceries at Wal Mart. The national enquirer and other tabloids are carried by virtually all of the “all American apple pie super markets – and carried prominently and proudly. “Good people” own many of the supermarkets. The shoppers are certainly good people. So why is it that they all revel in reading what they know are at least partial and usually total lies about other people’s misfortune.
I don’t accept Gafni’s characterization of the National Enquirer. He doesn’t provide any examples of the paper getting anything wrong in the past 15 years. My journalist friends who look at the tabloid in a dispassionate way (such as Jill Stewart of the LA Weekly) tell me that it is now as accurate as any of the major media, including the New York Times.
Gafni has quoted to me Angelina Jolie’s comment that 95% of what the tabloids write about her and Brad Pitt are wrong. I don’t accept her assertion. I don’t believe she provided evidence for it.
I am not naive about the tabloids. I am well aware of their dark side. I did this interview with former tabloid reporter Marlise Elizabeth Kast. I republished this devastating essay on the National Enquirer by Rod Lurie.
