The Gossip on Gossip
What happens when the mainstream media fails
Kneepads. That’s the nickname for People magazine in the underground gossip world, a reference to the safety equipment that their writers might need when performing a special service for celebrities.
If your celebrity news came from People, Entertainment Tonight, and the Today Show, you might think that JLo can sing and that Britney was mentally stable. If you read the occasional article about the entertainment world in the New York Times or watched a segment on CNN, you might think that Selena Gomez was sober and that Meghan Markle was kind to her staff. The underground gossip scene says something different.
Entertainment “news” in all forms of traditional media, from Vogue to the Wall Street Journal, is glossy and light. The mainstream media’s failure to provide real journalism on the celebrity world is a huge blind spot, leading to disasters like Weinstein and Epstein and to the growing suspicion of traditional media. A huge underground gossip scene on Reddit, Substack, old school blogs, and even Instagram has arisen to crowd-source entertainment news.
Entertainment news has always been fluff that shies away from the clay feet of the American’s celebrities. Rather than hearing about JFK’s dalliances with Marilyn Monroe or Spencer Tracy’s sexual confusions, the powerful heads of movie studios presented their celluloid heroes without flaws. Newspapers have always considered movie stars as harmless fun for the masses — back paper stories that brought in money and eyeballs. Editors figured that if the front pages covered wars and protests that the happy, aspirational stories offered a balance and a source of happiness for the hardworking public.
Not much has changed. Instead of the fluffy stories coming from the powerful heads of the movie companies, today’s articles are steered by major Hollywood public relation firms. These PR agencies make sure their clients are painted as saints, uniquely talented, essentially superhuman. They scrub the Internet of negative information and hire bots to leave heart and flower emojis in the comment sections of articles. They push their clients to support each other. Celebrities pay millions for their services.
Also contributing to the vapid entertainment journalism is an unfortunate problem that impacts all areas of the press — entertainment reporters would quickly put themselves out of work if they provided the real stories on celebrities. Their job is to land interviews with the big names - Beyonce! Rihanna! Affleck! If those big names refuse to talk to them, then their next job will be in a taco restaurant.
Since the early days of the Internet, the real buzz on celebrities can be found in sources that Google doesn’t put on the “news” tab. Crazy Days and Night is a blind gossip website that’s been going since 2006 and wrote about Weinstein looonnngggg before the New York Times and the New Yorker. Because I have a guilty interest in the British royal family, I read a subReddit with all the dirt on Andrew and Meghan and a really trashy Instagram page. I added gossip substacks to my usual diet of politics and policy.
Sure, garbage exists in those underground gossip sites. Some people hate their lives and desperately want other people to be as miserable as they are. But in the midst of all that craziness are gems — posts written by people who actually know what’s going on. Nannies, secretaries at the PR agencies, waiters, those invisible people who are essential to maintaining celebrity illusions, share the real story.
Does any of this matter? Should the mainstream press be doing a better job covering Hollywood and other celebrities? Yes, they should.
Weinstein was a disgusting rapist for years before the mainstream press decided to cover this topic. EVERYBODY KNEW. The underground websites talked about who was his latest project and the quid pro quo on his office sofa. And Weinstein is not the only creep in Hollywood, far from it, but without media investigations, these pervs are delivered a new batch of teens desperate for movie roles every day.
Donald Trump was always a jerk, but the newspapers didn’t bother with him, because nobody expected that he would ever become president. SURPRISE! Being a celebrity gives every political candidate a huge head start in any election. Who will be the next shady celebrity who will translate popularity into a seat in Washington?
And the failure to report entertainment news accurately builds distrust of the mainstream media. How can mainstream sources claim to have the high road on truth, when they don’t tell the truth either? Without tough scrutiny on press releases from outside firms, aren’t their hands dirty in the battle of Internet disinformation?
While this long-time blogger and recent substacker has an obvious affinity to underground, crowd-sourced journalism, those forums are a disturbing mix of gems and trash. Conspiracy stories flourish there. Ideally, we would have credible, mainstream sources of this information, but in the meantime, I’m checking reddit for my gossip news.
LINKS
I was working on an education article all week, but I did some outside writing. I wrote a piece for my disability newsletter:
I shared pictures of my book side hustle. On weekends, we go places. Pictures from a trip to New York City and a bike trip. One day of food.
People on reddit talk about what they liked best about the pandemic. People without kids really enjoyed that time.
Teachers and professors say that their jobs are misunderstood. I wrote an article ages ago for The Atlantic that touched on this topic.
I still miss Anthony Bourdain.
We need more special education teachers, not more English teachers.
Anybody worried about nuclear bombs?
Picture: Mussels in Piermont, NY to celebrate Steve’s birthday.
Watching: The Boys, She-Hulk, House of Dragons, Andor (hashtag boy mom)
Shopping: A work-from-home Zoom shirt for Steve. Neat, but untucked.