Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Weasels of the Week: New York tabloid press

Ever since it was announced at the end of last week that actors Tom Cruise ("Rock of Ages") and Katie Holmes (ex-Dawson's Creek) were ending their marriage, the editors of the New York Post & New York Daily News have treated this as front-page news when it does not deserve such status. Personally, I'm sick of it already, and I'd not be surprised if you are, too.

The facts are these, according to the gossips and the tabloids. Katie doesn't want daughter Suri going through formal indoctrination in Scientology, the controversial pseudo-religion that Cruise has been involved with for years. I don't blame Katie for wanting her child to live a normal life, but even Joe Average had to be creeped out to the max when both the Post & the News reported Monday that there were five men in an SUV with Tennessee license plates staking out the apartment that Ms. Holmes has rented for the duration. Reportedly, these goons started questioning innocent, curious bystanders, as if they had something to hide. Well, duh!

There are more important issues in the world, like the heat wave, for example, that should get front-page coverage, but we're stuck with this soap opera slop until a bigger story breaks, and I do mean bigger. When Michael Jackson passed away 3 years ago, the tabloids kept him on the front page for days because they felt it was in the public's best interest, just as they do now with the former "TomKat". I call BS.

It's funny. John Travolta, whose new film, "Savages", opens later this week, is also a Scientologist, but there was no mention of that when the tabs dished on the parasites filing suit against him a few weeks back for alleged sexual assault. And that quickly went away without incident, didn't it? Of course. However, because it's Cruise, perhaps the biggest name in the Scientology congregation, the tabs want to play up the so-called religion for what it really is, a cult. This inconsistent reporting irks me, too. I for one don't buy into Scientology because it's a bunch of BS created by sci-fi author L. Ron Hubbard, and too many people, including movie stars like Cruise, Travolta, and Will Smith have bought into the lies. Travolta even made a movie, "Battlefield Earth", that was inspired by Hubbard's garbage, and, predictably, it was a stink bomb at the box office.

Cruise didn't score a #1 with "Rock of Ages", as that was nudged out of the top spot on its opening weekend by "Madagascar 3", and "Ages" has gradually faded since.

We're giving the tabloid media a box of weasel ears this week because they deserve them for doing a disservice to their readers. If they want soap opera, all they need is look down the shelf for the usual garbage that passes for supermarket tabs. Do yourselves a favor, jabronies, and find something else for your front page headlines the rest of the week.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

Whenever something this trivial take over the covers of papers or your local tv news, check around legit news sites for what stories were bumped off the front page. Usually it's an important scandal involving what the government or politicos have been up to.

Stories like TomKat's divorce is a diversion for something the mainstream media doesn't want to report. Three day weekends are notorius dumping grounds for press releases TPTB hope will go unnoticed.

The Fourth Estate has become a Fifth Column.

hobbyfan said...

Oh? Is there something going on that I wouldn't know about? We're in an election year, and I'd think anything either President Obama or Oven Mitt Romney might say should take precedence over supermarket tabloid drama.

I'll be happy when Scientology is finally, once and for all, debunked.