Fayner Posts: We are a lazy breed, more so than most I must admit. And I ain’t pointing fingers here; I’m the worst of the worst I like to believe. I don’t know if it is some embedded gene or something we learn as we go, but one thing for sure is that it’s quite contagious.
The real world reporters do things like research, question and investigate in order to get the facts straight so that they can report factual news to the masses who subscribe to their medium. It’s a process long and tiresome, so long and tiresome in fact that at times it actually seems like work.
But luckily we don’t live in the real world. Here in Porn Country we aspire to reach the middle at best, and that gets passed on to the public in the form of cheap journalism.
Not that I’d change it for anything, but am I seriously the only one tired of getting some information and posting it with a question mark at the end so that if I am wrong (something I could find out with a simple phone call or two) it’ll all be okay ’cause I formed it in the shape of a question?
I do it all the time. We all do in this business. It usually happens when a director friend of ours gets pissed at some female talent who is all fucked up at the shoot and then calls us and asks us to write that the chick is a drugged-out skank. But we don’t want to talk to the chick ’cause we promised we wouldn’t say who told us, so basically we write some heading like TIFFANY HOLIDAY FUCKED UP ON DRUGS? and then continue with "sources say apparently blah blah blah…" It’s the best way to get away with as little work as possible while still doing the story.
Genius, right?
The ever-growing tabloid market is demonstrating this technique quite well these days. I’m so proud of them.
The best form of journalistic laziness comes from an inside source who wishes to remain unknown, and begin usually with "XXX Insider Writes". TheRealLukeFord is the king of this. No one is sure if the person writing these things is telling the truth, lying ’cause he’s owed money or scorned at an ex-lover. But we put them up anyway. And somehow their opinions and claims become valid since it’s on a web site. Awesome.
Why do we do these things? Because we love you.
If I were you guys, I’d demand more from us.