OceanDown

robhoffman:

I’m going to explain to everyone right now why trusting the information that comes from internet gossip sites, or any gossip publication for that matter, destroys the fabric of news journalism that has been built by credible, hard-working professionals for the past, I dunno, two hundred years.

At this point, we’ve been reduced as a society to believing anything that is put into print on a website that has a familiar ring to it’s name. With few exceptions, Perez Hilton and Jared Eng being two of them, I’ve never encountered an ethically credible internet gossip blogger. Jared and Perez put their names on what they do, because they do the leg work, dispense credible information, and stake their reputations on it.

What most other online gossip sites do is leach information from one another. Not only is this easier, more affordable, less labor intensive, and less time consuming, (not to mention that it requires less journalistic talent), but it provides a certain safety net, by which these shameless, hit-craving informants can hide behind in order to justify the fact that they didn’t put any leg work into their reporting, and by all means, are probably flat out wrong.

The two things that save them are 1.) the age demographics that they strive for are too young to know any better, and 2.) if the shit hits the fan, they can always blame it on the other unreliable internet news source that first posted the story.

It’s all about hits.

They want the hits. 

Even if the story is blurry, has shades of grey, seems a bit fishy, or flat-out has no merit, they’re going to reblog it, quoting some source, no matter how unreliable, because to them, having something plastered on their homepage that is shocking and unbelievable will lead to more sponsorship dollars down the road.

Chances are, if it’s shocking and unbelievable, it’s simply not true. 

Less than nothing these people post is true. 

But you’re going to read it.  And I get that.

It’s almost hard for you not to want it to be true. 

Our entertainment culture is based on watching people on television with more money, more popularity, and more opportunities than us.  It’s entertaining to imagine what you would do if you were put in the same position as them, but at the same time, internally, you can’t understand why they have everything and you don’t. Deep down there’s a part of you that wants them to be knocked down to a level by which they may serve you a coffee at Starbucks someday, and you’ll get to ask them every burning question you have in your brain.  It’s a societal Napoleon Complex. You want to see these people fail, and all of these “new media” sites know it.

On the opposite end, every celebrity understands this, and it’s something that comes with the territory. To a degree.

You need to realize, most of these bloggers are not journalists. They’re not credible. They’re not your friends either. They’re not friends of the people who they write about, and the only thing they care about is how famous they are, and how hard they can fall.

They will pass the blame off on anyone they can to protect the reputation of their website and avoid lawsuits, but all along, they were chomping at the bit, waiting for any hackneyed account of wrong-doing to pounce and claim those precious, precious hits that allow them to live in a semi-decent apartment in Santa Monica and avoid the horrible disposition of possibly having to work for a real publication with journalistic integrity and have to answer to an editor that won’t put up with their bullshit.

I’m not famous. I know a few people who are. Because I know them closely, I care about them dearly.

I implore you to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and understand this: 

These are people’s lives being played with. People with feelings. They’re not perfect. They may have everything you think you want, but by the same token, I guarantee you they’ve worked very, very hard for it.

It’s not fair, just because they’re easily recognized, that their reputations get put in the hands of the ever-growing, under-qualified internet media who only care about their own shameless bottom line. 

I urge everyone who is reading this to think long and hard about where you get your information from, and who can be trusted.

Please, stop frequenting these sites, and instead, turn to trustworthy sources of information.

The impact they have on the lives of others are outwardly negative, and the only thing that keeps them going is your viewership. 

Thanks,

Rob

+ 01.26.2012 / / via emdanyell, robhoffman

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    fucking love Bob okay.
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