Originally Posted By alexbook Is it slander or libel? I never remember the difference. Anyway, did anybody notice last week's Globe, with cover stories about George W. Bush and Barack Obama. <a href="http://www.globemagazine.com/archive/" target="_blank">http://www.globemagazine.com/a rchive/</a> >>First Lady Flees Boozing Bush In another world exclusive, GLOBE reveals how Laura Bush, fed up with her husband's boozing, stormed out of the White House and moved into the nearby Hay-Adams hotel. It's the latest explosive chapter in their troubled marriage, as detailed by GLOBE over the past year. This time Washington sources describe how the first lady couldn't take it any more after accusing the prez of slurring his words - sparking a new low in the state of their marriage.<< <a href="http://www.globemagazine.com/media/G-Bush.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.globemagazine.com/m edia/G-Bush.jpg</a> >>Barack Obama Exposed! The dashing Democratic presidential candidate's scandal-ridden past, including drug use, criminal connections and his secret Muslim life, is laid bare by well-placed insiders. Sources reveal the smooth-talking senator - the darling of Hollywood who has already raised $25 million in campaign contributions - is hiding shocking secrets that could de-rail his White House run.<< <a href="http://www.globemagazine.com/media/Obama-muslim.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.globemagazine.com/m edia/Obama-muslim.jpg</a> I love the First Amendment. Without it, our political life would be so much more boring. ;-)
Originally Posted By DlandDug I confine my supermarket reading to the Weekly World News. I am waiting with bated breath to see who the space alien is endorsing this election cycle... (P.S. I don't think this stuff is classified as slander OR libel. I would say it was classified as fiction.)
Originally Posted By alexbook Didn't you see that the WWN reported that the aliens are leaving Earth? I think they're trying to get out before it blows up or something.
Originally Posted By gadzuux People believe everything they see in the globe, enquirer or star is a phony story. Not true. Actually they break a lot of news - for two reasons. One is that they pay their sources, which a "legitimate" news organization wouldn't generally do. The other is good old fashioned shoe leather. They frequently "scoop" major media on the big stories - OJ, gennifer flowers, monica-gate, scott peterson - because they devote so many resources to the story. Are there marital troubles in the bush household? It wouldn't surprise me if it were true. Does obama have sordid secrets that have yet to emerge? Quite possible. And it will probably be the tabloids that break the story first.
Originally Posted By DlandDug While some tabloids (notably the Enquirer, which broke the Monica Lewinsky story) have managed to get a few things right, for the most part they deal in sensationalism and half truth. These two stories, for example, probably have a scintilla of truth in them. What marriage doesn't have a certain amount of tension? But if the Bushes were on the verge of divorce, the MSM would be all over it. As far as Obama's sordid past, there's nothing there I haven't heard, in milder form, before.
Originally Posted By ecdc Gadzuux, for every story they break that's actually not bogus, how many are nonsense? Most of these tabloids are filled with boring stories about Herb McClintock in Tinyville, South Dakota whose cat fell out of a 4 story window and lived. The cover stories are usually fiction. I suspect if we did the math, the number of times they've been sued and lost or had to settle out of court would greatly outnumber the stories they've "broken" that were actually legitimate. Just a guess.
Originally Posted By gadzuux The enquirer is more prone to the 'heartland' stories about ordinary people. The globe tends more to celebrity trash. Since they're the ones paying the closest attention, they usually get the story first. And it's the cover story that's usually the one that's most heavily vetted. As a disclaimer, I don't usually read the tabloids, but I do keep up on pop culture. I do buy them when there's a scandal I'm particularly interested in (george michael!) or when I'm on vacation. They're great reading around resort pools and on flights. And when something "big" hits, all the tabs try to out-scoop each other. Several years ago marie osmond had a rather public bout with post-partum depression and erratic behavior. At the time she had a daily talk show with donny and was much 'higher profile' than today. It was splashed over all the tabs for weeks. She later said that she had staff sifting through all of the published stories looking for falsehoods, and though they were lurid they were generally accurate. I like tabloids - what can I say? Unflattering pics of celebrities, stories of back-stabbing, scandals, arrests, catfights, divorces - that's entertainment.
