At the grocery store earlier today, I noticed the Star (I think) said Martha Stewart had gained a hundred pounds or something. She’s on Letterman right now, which was presumably taped this afternoon, and she looks the same as always. She must have an amazing weight loss plan. Damn, it took me a year to lose 100 pounds.
Why do they just make stuff up like this? More importantly, why to people believe it? The Weekly World News I can understand, for comedy purposes, but this is ridiculous.
What a coincidence. I was just perusing the cover of the Weekly World News at the supermarket today, and apparently Bat Boy will be the President of the US sometime in the future.
But as for your questions, I doubt that many readers take the claims seriously to heart. But it’s fun to almost believe it. There’s something attractive in seeing the imagined mighty fall from grace. I think we often take more pleasure from assuming the worst about someone than we reserve for assuming the best, or finer.
Considering the lawsuits that some of the glitterati have levied against tabloids, the stories are sometimes at least taken seriously enough to launch a counter-attack.
Well, since you have to be 35 to serve as President, does that mean by that time, he’ll actually be Bat Man? I could go for Batman for President.
Probably due to his military record. He joined the army a couple of months ago.
Tabloids make that stuff up because people want to believe the worst about famous-- and infamous --people. The more scandalous the “news”, the more fun it is to read about, even if it turns out to be false. And hell, people will buy papers about an overweight Stewart before they’ll see concrete proof that she’s just as perfect as always. Each paper’s editions have very brief run-times, though, so it hardly matters.
The tabloids get away with lying because the celebrities know that it will take more money and hurt their reputations more to sue for libel than to just ignore them altogether. Tabloids generally lose their court cases, true, but it’s not worth the expense to most stars, especially since it has no lasting impact, anyway.
They lie because stupid people want to read it. Some fat middle classed low IQ Daytime TV watching Opra worshiping bitch pays for that crap.
To sell papers. I’ve worked for them, so this I know.
Escapism, stupidity, wishful thinking? Maybe they don’t believe it, but still get a thrill from reading about their favourites stars.
Complete stereotyping vitriol. Grow up.
Whassa matter, Beadalin, did clayton_e hit a little too close to the mark?
Um… yeeesssss. Let’s say I am a (gotta copy and paste here) fat middle-class low-IQ daytime-TV-watching Oprah worshipping bitch. Yay me! Even if all that were true, clayton_e is still getting a little too worked up over people buying tabloids. Tabloids never do claim to be anything more than entertainment, and I don’t see the point in using such ridiculously angry language to describe the, according to clayton, one individual single-handedly supporting the tabloid industry.
My favorite WWN headline was the one on the stands on 9/11.
The Headline:
but it was the subhead that clinched it:
The worst part (and I guess this is mostly the Enquirer) is that every once in a while they actually break a real story. (Paula Jones is I think the best example.) This makes it impossible to completely dismiss their claims. (Bat Boy motwithstanding.)
–Cliffy
Apparently no one here reads (or admits to it) the inside of such periodicals. I’m guessing that the story inside would refer to a real quote from Martha on the lines of “I’ve gained and lost a 100 pounds in the last 5 years.” I.e., standard diet yo-yoing.
Years ago most front page headlines could be “backed up” in similar ways. But I don’t think they care that much anymore. And photo doctoring to show “artist’s conception” goes along with it.
I play the game when standing in line of trying to figure out what the “real story” is that goes with the headlines. But I don’t know/don’t care about Bat Boy.
As Jerry Seinfeld said, “People who read tabloids deserved to be lied to anyway.”
I guess my problem is, I am so steeped in the concept of truth, I would prefer the truth, no matter how unpleasant, to a comforting lie. So tabloids baffle me. Why someone would deliberately expose themselves to falsehood, is something I may never understand. I know that they do it, I see Ms. Cleo ads, and pass the tabloids on the way to the checkout, but I guess I just don’t have my thumb on the pulse of America, and I think I’ll keep it that way.
I might point out that Bat Boy is from the Weekly World News, which makes really no pretense of presenting the truth about anything. The National Enquirer is the “respectable” tabloid that a couple times a year actually does break a relevant news story.
One of the editors from the WWN sometimes goes on the Mark and Brian radio show to talk about that week’s issue, and the guys have nailed him a couple times on inconsistancies, etc., and in the end he just said made an analogy that announcing that professional wrestling was fake would ruin the illusion and the fun.