"So what" stories in the press

biscit

Sort of a rant, but more an expression of confused bafflement.

I really don't get celeb stories in the press. I mean I'm not interested in the tittle-tattle about people's private lives, but I can see how others might be.

No the stories I mean are the "So What?" type, typically a picture of a famous person doing something banal like walking down the street, or going to the supermarket, or being on holiday, while doing nothing newsworthy:

Here's an example from the Daily Mail:
http://istyosty.com/nmw

The main thrust of the story is that Lewis Collins was spotted looking older now than he did when he was in the professionals. THIRTY THREE YEARS AGO.

I mean so what? Of course he looks older! What's the point, I really don't get it.

The Daily Mail is one of the worst for these banal, privacy breaking stories. What's worse is that on the website they all go out under the "Femail" section. Am I unusual in thinking that filling the women's interest section of a paper with such spiteful and yet shallow and banal stories is sexist and misogynistic? The choice of stories of the editorial team of the Femail section seem to me to indicate that those compiling them think that women are typically shallow, gossipy, and stupid. I know this is not the case.

I mean WHY?

Errata

The Professionals is being remade as a film, a pic of an old Professional is simply PR for the film! Expect to see more. Or be like me, and don't read it.

PZH

Because it sells papers to people who do want to read that tripe.

If you don't like it - don't read it :rotfl:

DCFC79

I do understand what your getting at OP, i hate the stories about peoples private lives as boring, oh she did that and he did this is just boring, i think them magazines(that ad that has brian dowling voice over) are terrible for it as well

margaretclare

There was another one fairly recently all about Bob Dylan grieving for the woman who was his 'inspiration' in his early career. She died of lung cancer and he was seen visiting a synagogue, the writer of the article assumed this was to pray for her. The article left in the air the question 'as he'd converted to Christianity earlier, does this mean he's gone back to practising as a Jew?' And it did point out that he's a very private person, like Lewis Collins, shuns publicity etc. So the moment these 'private and reclusive' men appear in very casual clothing and in an unflattering guise, shove a long-lens camera in their faces. Not nice, is it?

fluffnutter

Oh biscit, you're just not getting it. The most important stories this week for me have been:

1. Myleene Klass called her baby some weird name
2. Something to do with Libya
3. Something about Japan

Thanks for alerting me to the fact that Lewis Collins looks older these days. I'd missed that. In fact, I think that shattering news might even knock that Japan stuff out of the top 3.

SnowBelle_2

Stone me now but I used to quite like the DM!
But now they just seem to copy and paste their stories from the trashy US magazine 'People' including using all the Americanisms .
They are also obsessed with fat- to slim-back to fat people
Now Fern Britton is not so popular every day it's how kerry katona is looking 'trim'
I did see the Lewis Collins story and all I could think about was how much he looked like Gary Glitter!!
So I'm afraid it's back to finding another decent paper to read......which ones are they again??

Errata

It's easy to figure out which readership a newspaper is aimed at - check out the adverts. Stairlifts and incontinence knickers in the Daily Fai, sex lines in the Bun

trumpton

This total obsession with celebrity culture is quite depressing, I find. Who really wants to see a photo of some reality tv no-mark putting 20p in a parking meter? I don't know who's worse really, the papers who print all this crud or the people who buy it. There must be a demand to see a picture of Helen Mirren in her cossie shot from 900 yards away or they wouldn't print it.

Worse than the Mail has to be stuff like Pick Me Up magazine. Whenever I see the cover it is about a few celebrities who look (in the mags opinion), a) too porky or b) too skinny. Then there will be a feature story headed something like - 'Raped by My Step-brother, Set On Fire, and Left To Die'. Seriously. Pick Me Up? !!!!!!.

This obsession with what celebrities are doing is very unhealthy imo, especially for girls. It just promotes the idea that you are nobody unless you are rich or famous and that fat or thin, you will never be good enough. It doesn't matter what you have achieved, being a celebrity is all that matters and is an end in itself.

Do you really want your kids growing up surrounded by all this stuff? We don't buy newspapers or mags like that in our house, I'm afraid. As for Twitter - who can be bothered checking up all the time to see what some actor is doing with his day? I just don't get why you would be interested. Rant over.

barbiedoll

The National Enquirer is the absolute best for this kind of [STRIKE]tat[/STRIKE] celebrity news. Every single week, it has a picture of either Jennifer Aniston or Angelina Jolie on the cover, along with a story that one of them is furious with the other because of a secret phone call/tryst/text with Brad Pitt.

It's almost as exciting as Kerry Katona's diet and Coleen Rooney's collection of bikinis.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

biscit

phoodless wrote: »

Because it sells papers to people who do want to read that tripe.

Does it? Exactly who is reading this and thinking it interesting? It's not a front page story so it's not drawing people into the paper? That's what I'm asking- who on earth likes this kind of thing.

I mean I can see the appeal in the salacious gossipmongering the gutter tabloids get up to, even if it doesn't appeal to me. These stories I'm getting at- they're just inches of nothingness.

I don't dislike this kind of story- because there's nothing really there to dislike. It's just a void of meaning. It doesn't insult my intelligence because I don't buy that paper.

Thing is that unlike the red tops and the gossip magazines, the Daily Mail pretends to be a serious newspaper.