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October 01, 2007

Newssip

What could be more thrilling than the latest gossip piece reported by a journalist of quality by a major newspaper?

Claudia Eller's "reporting" on the issues inside the Redstone family add nothing to the story that hasn't been reported, except to "report" from inside the wedding of Redstone's granddaughter about whether Sumner danced with his daughter or toasted his granddaughter.

But my very favorite part of the article is the rationalization of unnamed sources, in a tradition started by the New York Times, with excuses right up there with, "the dog ate my homework."

The two in this article are: “according to people close to father and daughter who asked not to be named because the negotiations are private” and “one person, who asked to remain anonymous because the wedding was a private family affair.”

So... people gossiped with the LA Times, perhaps with motive, about people's private behavior and they don't want to be named because they are talking out of school (or are talking with the purpose of supporting their side in the dispute) about private things.

Now let's just imagine - and these realities don't demand much imagination - that a studio topper was having an affair with an employee. If someone was to make that accusation in the LA Times, would the paper run a "the source asked to remain anonymous because he's pals with both of the people in the affair as well as the divorcing wife and kids and he doesn't want to be disinvited from next month's premiere of a movie whose name he would rather not have published because he casting-couched the female lead in a studio restroom three years ago but never delivered on his promises and she didn't get that level of role until she started banging the director?"

Probably not. But "because the situation is private" could well be all of that and more.

In point of fact, there is not a single legitimate source on the record in the entire story, the kinda exceptions being single sentence comments from each of The Redstone's spokespeople. ("We love each other; there's no rift," and, "Shari still intends to try to resolve the differences with her father privately.")

There is NO news here... just someone looking to have the most current update. Which is to say, it was a story that should have been spiked until there was some news or at least some reason in the history of the situation that demanded an update.

Posted by poland at October 1, 2007 12:52 AM

Comments

Posted by: Cadavra at October 1, 2007 04:09 PM

Posted by: doug r at October 2, 2007 07:13 AM

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