I knew I smelled National Enquirer

Earlier this week, a report regarding Ohio police chiefs breaking into the home of the surrogate for Sarah Jessica Parker's twins hit the internet. A disgusting demonstration of greed and lack of empathy - sure - but there was a definite tinge of cruelty to this whole scenario, which made me think that the tabloid in question was the National Enquirer. Just look at their record lately: the Edwards affair/paternity drama; Patrick Swayze, Paul Newman, and Farrah Fawcett's cancer struggles; and one of their reporters taking Brooke Shields' dementia-stricken mother out for 'errands'. Tabloids are reknown for crossing lines, but the National Enquirer aren't above breaking laws and engaging in ruthless and questionable tactics. And according to TMZ, the Enquirer's record of unethical journalism continues.

For me, this confirms that certain men shouldn't be involved in the gossip game; they can't accurately gauge their audience's taste in gossip or their threshold for sleazy tactics. This is not to say that gossip should be a women only domain; gossip via female writers and editors tend to be anti-strong women and very high school. No way should the Aniston-Pitt-Jolie story have dragged on for four years and yet, female tabloid editors have transformed this story into a Betty-Archie-Veronica derivative. For fcuk sakes, the Archie comics have been around for -what- nearly 50 years?

Again, the whole gossip game could use a major therapeutic purge. Failures shouldn't be in the position to disseminate gossip because their failures and lack of acceptance of same can color their perspectives. And quite frankly, if their failures were due to laziness, incompetence, lack of intelligence and trustworthiness, and credibility, why the hell should anyone believe that these people can redeem themselves in the celebrity gossip game? There is no incentive for these people to do their jobs correctly and with integrity if there's a lack of fact checking and consequences for making mistakes or flat-out lying.

Just look at entertainment shows like Showbiz Tonight and Hollywood 411. They used to have tabloid editors promoting their stories on the shows all the time. About a year ago, the editors stopped promoting tabloid stories, and yet, there's always a seat for these editors to talk around their stories or offer commentary. If these tabloid editors can't stand behind their stories, why continue to reward them with airtime when these entertainment shows can seek out non-tabloid staff (read: experts/cultural critics) for more well-thought out entertainment analysis?

I continue to marvel at why these 24 hour news outlets lack of cleaning house where entertainment journalism is concerned.

And BTW... I consider the National Enquirer the date rapists of tabloids.