The Times’ obsession with the Page Six scandal continues today with an effort to suss out the business impact of gossip reporting. The paper seems desperate to separate not just itself but journalism from these gutter rats. But I still say that of too much of what it covers goes for political and often business reporting as well. No, I’m not saying that all news is gossip. But a lot is.
Maybe it is just me, but I really don’t see how the media outlet that gave us the Jayson Blair scandal has much room to pontificate on the morality of Page Six (which at least admits it is gossip).
Shouldn’t we be blaming the tendencies toward the tabloid on the consumers who shell out to read it in larger numbers than they shell out to read the journalistic equivalent of spinach?
“But in those New York industries where buzz matters — hotels, media, fashion, real estate — the right blurb can have a more profound impact than any number of deeply reported articles in more sober newspapers. ”
The right blurb can appear in a blog as well. The power to inform can, with little effort, mutate into a protection racket. With the rules of citizen media still up for grabs, we haven’t seen the last of this.
I may be just a wee bit prejudiced (I have a blog called Infotainment Rules, which is sort of based on the idea that much of the “news,” regardless of how it is gathered and selected, is delivered to us as if it were gossip–that is, with entertainment values).
I think that the NYT’s obsession w/ the Page Six story actually serves the public interest by shedding light on the workings of the influence industry. That subject is rarely addressed by the MSM (due to the many potential conflicts of interest). I also think that the NYT’s reporting on this subject has been top-notch–and risky, as Jeff’s remarks indicate. By exposing gossip-gathering, they allow readers to extrapolate from there and draw their own conclusions about news-gathering.
In this case, I think they are ahead of the curve in treating this as a big news story. Gossip is very serious business in the corridors of power.
There are more important things to write about in the newspapers (not that I don’t indulge on a good Page Six story every now and again), such as the forsaken Millenium Goals set by the UN. It is rediculous how little attention is paid to the fact that the US Government is the only country not going forward with these goals, which happen to be the greatest opportunity thus far to turn back the clock on poverty. The Borgen Project (www.borgenproject.org) has more information on what needs to be done in order for these goals to be met.