Why ET Deserves to Be Hoaxed
I could give a rats ass as to when Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt reproduce. I don’t care about their personal lives, and I don’t care about their children. Which is why I find the whole to-do surrounding whether or not Angelina gave birth so hilarious.
Ladies and gentlemen, a mother giving birth — something that has happened countless billions of times — is not a news story. That it is treated as such just because the mother and father happen to be international movie stars has always been beyond me. That said, I certainly understand that a lot of people are interested, but it’s treated with such breathless importance — BREAKING NEWS!! — that ET apparently allowed themselves to be hoaxed. In order to get a scoop.
That’s why I say: go hoaxer, whomever you are.
Of course ET disagrees with me. According to E! Online they’re kind of pissed:
“Entertainment Tonight takes this very seriously and is, of course, concerned that the show may have been victimized by someone allegedly posing as a member of Ms. Jolie’s team,” the statement said. “We are actively investigating the matter and are reaching out to law enforcement agencies.”
Yup. They were victimized. Except that they weren’t. They didn’t have to report this story based upon that single source. They could have done the math. But they didn’t. Because they wanted the scoop. That was the single most important factor, as opposed to, you know, the actual truth of the matter.
The same story goes on to say that ET had every opportunity to fully source the story prior to airing it, but chose not to. And in fact, it’s entirely possible that they were pretty sure that the story was false even prior to airing it. In essence, they were gambling that a single source that they knew was probably wrong was actually right.
I guess that they figured that if they reported it as reality, then it would become reality. Not this time.
So they deserve every single bit of scorn that is being heaped on them, and here’s hoping that — as long as they are going to report unimportant things based upon dodgy information — it happens again.
Technorati Tags: Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, ET, Entertainment Tonight
RSS
4 Comment(s) so far
1. Davis Freeberg wrote on June 5th, 2008 at 9:41 am
These hoaxes are no laughing matter. I hope that E! finds this prankster and releases the lawyers on them. Someone could have been seriously injured from this bogus story. After one tabloid/media publication that I follow announced that Duroplayer had created unbreakable DRM, I went out and spent a boatload of money on the product to compensate for all the guilt that I feel over my early Napster downloading. There was talk of a Durosport iTunes site starting up at some point, but it must have been a hoax because I still can’t figure out how to even import or export music onto the device. I’m glad that I’m doing the right thing by supporting strong DRM, but if I ever figure out who leaked the Durosport music downloading hoax, I’m going to use my Duroprism to beat them senseless with it.
2. Davis Freeberg wrote on June 5th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Yes, it’s all about me.
3. Tyson wrote on June 5th, 2008 at 11:07 am
You should be so lucky–I can’t find a Prism Durosport on Craigslist or eBay ANYWHERE!!
4. Jim wrote on June 5th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Hi Davis,
Ever since Durosport threatened to sue us for “Defamation of Products” last year, I’ve put their company on my watch list. And while they’ve been blessedly silent for quite some time, I think that the publication of which you speak announcing the Durosport “unbreakable” DRM was Durosport’s own Insider Blog.
I would hardly call that a reliable expert.
So while I sympathize with your plight, it does seem a bit caveat emptorish.