How the Sausage Gets Made: A Look at How Worthless Tabloid Stories are Born
Jossip has a tidbit on a letter an Us Weekly reporter sent to Ramiro Romo, more or less urging him to start a battle in the press with the Simpson family. (Gawker breaks down the letter here.) This is how this plays out: if Ramiro takes the bait then–BOOM!–there is at least a month, maybe more, of covers. Easy. “Inside Jessica & Tony’s FAMILY FEUD!” and then on and on from there. This is 100 percent inside Joe Simpson’s wheelhouse. If Mr. Romo doesn’t take the bait…well, it doesn’t matter. Now they do the same series of covers, except they use a nugget of truth (Ramiro won’t comment) and twist it to show just how desperate the situation is. “It’s so bad, a source close to the situation says [read: the Us Weekly reporter who sent the letter], Ramiro refuses to even talk about it!”
It’s genius.
When this is as close as most people get to “journalism,” is it any question why “journalism” gets smeared with a bad reputation? This is the kind of garbage that once started a war with the Spanish. Only it wasn’t over anything as meaningless as Jessica Simpson’s pockmarked visage.
When is she going to show us her cans?