How Guilty Are The Media?

[sp1814]

certain sections of the press have been telling us how culpable Hollywood as been in not exposing the sex pests in its midst

However, are the media innocent in all this?

https://youtu.be/mDh4xeI-4KQ

Do we simply not have any quality journalists anymore, or is it because they too knew what was going back on and were happy to ignore the stories under their noses?

[jno]

it depends. They're subject to libel laws like anyone else (fairly stringent in the UK); the likes of Weinstein wouldn't waste his time suing the Empty Prairies Gazette, but he'd be happy to take the Daily Mail for millions (the Mail had to pay Melania Trump about $3m this year). So though it may not seem like it at times, journalists are fairly cautious about what they print unless they've got cast-iron evidence. Mostly, thy've just got one person's word against another.

[youngmafbog]

And therein lies the problem with social media which is full of "The Empty Prairies Gazette" types all not responsible for what they say or print.

As far as the media ignoring the issue this is one of those rare occasions I agree with jno!

[andy-hughes]

I think jno is right.

I also think that the media goes for what is currently 'sexy' in terms of news-worthiness.

Terrorism is always a good staple, but other topics rise and fall, and right now, sexual harassment and gender reassignment are the two biggies to get editors grinning and tills ringing, so that is where we are.

It will all die down, in terms of the media spotlight, but the appalling behaviour will go on - because it can.

[Gromit]

While Weinstein wasn’t exactly discrete, I don’t think his MO was well known outside of a small circle of actresses. So the media didn’t ignore or were complicit in a cover-up, because they simply didn’t know.

[sp1814]

Gromit

I hear you - but when Seth McFarlane is making jokes about it at The Oscars nomination event, and Courtney Love states it outright - surely any journalist worth his salt would follow up on it?

[jno]

there may be journalists who hang on Courtney Love's every word, but I wouldn't bet on it. Thanks to social media, if she'd said it now it would quite likely have been retweeted often enough for the mainstream media to take notice; but that sort of thing hadn't really taken off in 2005.

McFarlane had a bigger audience - but his comment was accordingly more oblique, and not obviously enough to warrant a news story. All he said, as I recall, was that some actresses no long had to pretend to find Weinstein attractive. That's pretty innocuous; you could say it of any producer, even the most blameless ones.

[douglas9401]

Not sure about the US but here newspapers seem to feed off each other bringing the same stories skewed to their own POV.
Journalists worth their salt seem to have vanished like snow off a dyke.
It's all revenue raising click bait these days for the most part.

[jno]

journalism has always been about raising revenue. Seems reporters like to eat.