Tragic deaths. Horrible accidents. Personal lives of celebrities and public officials. Is it news? You make the call. Really, you do. Some people call it bad news, but most folks are drawn to it like moths to a bright light.
Tragic deaths. Horrible accidents. Personal lives of celebrities and public officials. Is it news?
You make the call. Really, you do. Some people call it bad news, but most folks are drawn to it like moths to a bright light.
That’s why they buy newspapers and grocery store gossip rags, watch TV news and tabloid shows, surf the Web and tune in radio. For the dirty laundry.
Actress/comic Ellen DeGeneres and actress Ann Heche carried on a high-visibility relationship for about three years before their love apparently went bad. Did they split up privately? Did the media turn its attention to more important things? Of course not. The ex-couple released a statement this week, asking that their privacy be respected—which really meant they hope to keep their names on the lips of gossip mongers everywhere. The worst thing for a celebrity is to be ignored. And in this case, the media dutifully picked up the story. Whatever sells.
Step away from the national stage for a moment, all the way down to Kaua’i. The gossip train is always on the track around here, it seems. Callers to The Garden Island frequently wonder why we don’t include personal information in this story or that, or why we do a story about someone without delving into their lifestyle or rumored activities.
Here’s why: Because it’s nobody’s business if it isn’t news.
Community newspapers such as this one have a different relationship with their audience than big-city newspapers and national media. They go for mass appeal, giving the masses what they want: Gossip and gore. There isn’ t necessarily anything wrong with that, especially since information consumers can choose for themselves what they read and hear. Nobody’s being forced to indulge in it.
Lots of people on Kaua’i like that stuff, too. To each their own. But community newspapers have a duty to think of people as people, not marketshares or ratings. So when it comes to gossip, they’ll get less of it here on their neighbors because little, if any of it, has any relevance. What’s truly relevant is information that has an impact on people—how and where they work, how their children are educated, how their government works.
If it’s dirty laundry you want, open the hamper.
TGI editor Pat Jenkins can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) and pjenkins@pulitzer.net
