TABLOID RUBBISH, RIHANNA AND BLACK HISTORY?

Hmmmmm.

This is interesting and your views and interaction are important to me. I think my views may provoke discussion...or not.

There has been much ado about Caribbean songstress Rihanna being beaten up by Chris Brown. Two things came to my mind. One is that on TMZ, they still say, as they do on CNN, that Rihanna is the ALLEGED victim. That little word ALLEGED is very important to us in the media because unless our editors (and I am self employed but was a journalist) intend to pay out millions MORE, that little word PROTECTS the media from lawsuit...and not even entirely, ask anyone in Law.

Now I am not too sure about the legalities of it, but it is quite fine to lift news and report on it using say in this case TMZ.com as a "source". What interests me is the quality of the source. while CNN itself uses TMZ.com from time to time, they use the word ALLEGE constantly.

In some areas of the Caribbean press, I am being bored to tears with the Rihanna story as FACT (and it may be a fact) with information lifted from TMZ.com which to me is no different but has a classier marketing and branding strategy, than the National Enquirer or Perez.com
Now the news is all about her Dad speaking out and/or being homeless and living from a truck. Who cares? This is a rolling stone gathering serious crappy moss and rolling into the direction of yellow journalism again. Sure one can report on Rihanna and the possible alleged beat-up but there is a limit for every news story and here I am back at Self governance.

Unless I have seen Rihanna beaten (and it is quite possible that she was the victim, or unless I have a medical report in my hand), I will not speculate to sell news. That is my hard line approach to news because I personally abhor gossip and gossip is not news and we had that discussion with the Nigerian nurses and the CBC and the Nation. Even my friend former High Commissioner to the UK Peter Simmons spoke on this on 92.9 FM in Barbados as well as to a colleague in Nigeria and the Nigerians are not amused. As you and I both know, one of the nurses is alive and well. Until (and it may) the situation becomes a huge lawsuit, the death certificates of the one whose death certificate is not produced is NOBODY's business. Frankly, I am shocked that anyone is interested but then again, I am not.

So do we have a responsibility to not follow lurid bogs, dot com gossip news or should we use some sort of self governance in reporting while perhaps still using these sources?

Everything is up for discussion.

Incidentally, I visited TMZ.com for the first time this morning and must say that the site is better than National enquirer (a huge rag) but no better in content yet seems to be a credible source. I am not one for "sources close to..." said. I know we do not have to reveal sources but in a lawsuit, we do folks! So let us get this straight.

I digress, the site had a bit saying Chris Brown was sorry and there was no comment from Rihanna. What a surprise? I do not expect anything from Rihanna. I wish her well whether she was a victim or not. TMZ had a little vote button on whether his apology was (pardon me) Public relations BS or genuine. Over 80% said it was BS. Again, it does not matter to me. That is tabloid journalism and is for tabloid journalists.

They have a place in society I suppose. This group on facebook and right here however welcomes them, but I do so with some reservations. I feel the same way about some blogs and frankly just because the BBC or CNN are top networks does not mean they are always right either.

Your views? Post to the group site or this blog. Happy February which incidentally brings me to this. Why is the Caribbean celebrating Black History Month and copying the US in the press reports?

We are predominantly black and we do not need to do this COPYING. We have things to celebrate about all cultures year-round. I even think that is the case in the US after 400 years of oppression, 28 days committed to trivia (albeit interesting) is possibly well... you tell me.