I used to be a tabloid reporter AMA

[AprilONeil]

Been meaning to offer up a thread on here for a while but tbh have been too nervous, since I know how people round these 'ere parts feel about the tabloids.

Anyway, I used to work as a showbiz reporter on a British tabloid newspaper (would rather not say which one because potentially outing) and have since moved into a more 'worthy' area of journalism.

AMA...

(Dons hard hat)

Thanks for replying OP. Britney has always seemed a bit fragile to me.

@TheSpottedZebra

Is Cowell gay?

Yes! Most of the upper showbiz circle knows it however it is up to him as it is his life... I like him, he has done well for himself!

His 'wife' is the beard just like all the previous girlfriends he paid (oops) paraded... She's his best friends wife etc etc

It was expected for him to come out after his mother died but he didn't...

Funny story, my Mum really fancies Simon (like a lot of older women) and I always told her that he was gay but she wouldn't believe me, so I told her to ask the person she house cleans for, has done for 20+ years, he is one of the highest & respected people in the UK showbusiness sector, so she asked him and he smiled and said 'Yes, that it is well known amongst the showbiz elite...

Mum was very upset, but is slipping back to the mindset that the guy she cleans for was lying too! (like she had a chance in any case!) hahaha

Elton John loves a court order, doesn't he!

would also point out that unless you literally read the paper every day and personally saw those stories appearing 5-6 times a week, how you can confidently say it was "daily" as opposed to, say, people posting screenshots/links on social media every day but the stories they're linking to are actually from totally different time periods, ifyswim.

I would look at Daily Mail online almost daily at that time and there were a few DLA benefit cheats story every week during that time. The whole thing was so blatant and tied up with the Welfare Reform changes going on.

Yeah you're right, he's a recluse.

https://www.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/2018112264873/exclusive-olympic-champion-mo-farah-dedicates-gold-medals-to-children-full-story//?gl=1zju9ytga*YW1wLUs4aUVlT1VHWjdzUXE1cTVvbTgySGI3VXNnZXFjMjNzdldGeXhyT2ttbS1WbWVfdTREU2FPajhxbWliS2s1cHU.

and the idea that someone in government could persuade an editor to run daily stories about a subject for two years honestly seems laughable to me.

Daily Mail under Paul Dacre had a strong right wing take. The editorial decisions were clearly to support the govt. I find it disturbing that you could work for a newspaper and not be aware a newspaper takes a political editorial line.

Best thread ever.

Is Kanye West really gay?

Are you really good at making puns?

I know you've spoken about Caroline Flack and seemed to suggest that she wasn't treated any differently from any generic person.

That's seems pretty disingenuous to me, she was clearly a very vulnerable person and yet was pursued and reported on by national media outlets. Caroline from High Street Northampton would not have been treated like this.

Do you really feel that anyone in the public eye deserves to have such intrusive reporting on their personal life?

@Angelil

Sorry if it has already been answered but how far would you consider that the tabloids shaped the outcome of the Brexit referendum?

I don't know that I have particular insight into it but as I mentioned before, I believe (and in my experience) newspapers reflect the public, not the other way round. So the newspapers came out for Brexit when they saw which way the wind was blowing. But even if some people were persuaded by newspapers, given how much their circulation and influence has dropped in the internet age, it's questionable how many that was.

Also, it's not as straightforward as saying "the tabloids influenced Brexit" because not all the tabloids were pro-leave. For example, the Daily Mail was, but its sister paper The Mail on Sunday - which has a completely separate editor and staff - came out as Remain.

@Mothership4two

From what I've heard Fleet St has changed a lot

It certainly has, most newspapers moved out of Fleet Street in the late 80's, 20 years before your time OP

Fleet Street is a metonym. I use it distinct from "the media" or "the press" because the latter includes magazines/TV/radio as well as digital-only outlets, which weren't really around before Leveson.

@Frazzledmum123

Tbh I just want to know more about which famous people are and aren't nice in real life lol. Did you ever meet any of the Disney stars? My daughter is obsessed with a lot of the ones who did the teen shows and I'd love to know if they are as nice/normal ish as she is convinced they are or if they are as arrogant as I perhaps unfairly imagine they are!

Sadly no because my beat was mostly British actors (would have loved to meet Miley Cyrus). I did meet Ariana Grande (although she was Nickelodeon) before she really became big in the UK and didn't come away with a great impression.

@EachandEveryone

Surely you dont mean Claudia Winklemen?😂😂

no but there are so many that would fit the profile, aren't there!

[quote BitOfFun]@AprilONeil, have you seen this Julie Burchill article about the silence of the Press due to nepotism etc? It seems to chime a bit with some of what you've told us.

Great thread, btw, thank you![/quote]

I did see it and love Julie Burchill. It's fab that she's having a Renaissance. The piece was quite acidic but also spot on.

@TheSpottedZebra

Why so many stores about Ian Beale actor having left his wife over a year ago? Is there some really juicy gossip they're hinting at, or is it all a PR thing and he's going to be announced for Strictly?

Completely missed this story (as am not a big Eastenders fan) but having had a quick look, it seems like it's getting a lot of press atm because it's "new" in the sense that although it happened last year the story has just come out. I also noticed some of the articles mention something about him taking a break for the show. Taken together those two facts could possibly suggest something larger going on behind the scenes but in this case I genuinely have no idea.

@kimmsutt

I believe that the lack of reporting (ie only telling one side of a story to get headline sales, rather than telling both sides/investigating other sides) is one of the biggest contributors to the Brexit situation. Do you agree? Do you think individual journalists have a role to play in telling the truth or does the remit come from the editors to create one sided versions of life? Thanks. I may come and ask more gossip questions but I‘m so angry with the media at the moment that have sensible head on.

I find it hard to answer this question(s) because - in the gentlest way - I so fundamentally disagree with your premise.

I've answered a similar Brexit one a few posts earlier but re journalists having a responsibility to tell the truth/one-sidedness, when people complain about this what it most often comes down to is it's not that they don't like how the story is written - because the basic premise of journalism is you try to get comments from at least both sides (eg the prosecution/judge and the perpetrator) - it's that they don't like the story being reported on at all.

So, for example, take a DM article about someone scamming benefits - it will be a true story, usually based on a court case.

Where I do agree is that the media choose where to shine a spotlight - but that goes for every organisation from DM to BBC to HuffPost. And every organisation - including the Guardian, the New Statesman, the Morning Star - have their own biases and editorial slant. You just may not see them because they reflect your own so exactly.

@trixiebelden77

It sounds like you spent a very short time at the peripheries.

You also sound very naive.

I think this could be an interesting AMA when you’re 30 years into your career.

I didn't spend decades at my newspaper, no, but I was there a good few years. As I've said multiple times though, I didn't do hard news, so questions about Brexit/politics etc are harder for me to answer simply because I was never in those meetings.

And yes, I was fairly junior then but I'm not anymore so curious what you think is naive in my answers/outlook?

@Nikori

I have to admit that I am also curious as to what is going on with Ian Beale.

Any gossip about Geordie Greig and Ghislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew? The DM have been going after PA pretty hard.

It sounds like you might know more than I do! I think all the press - even The Telegraph - have pursued this story pretty rigorously. It was actually the Mail on Sunday that first really broke the story about PA and Epstein when they published pics of them in the park together and they were the first (I think) to get an interview with Virginia Roberts.

I think PA has always just been extremely unpopular and now the gloves are off but it wouldn't surprise me to learn there was more going on in the background, particularly in terms of some of the other upper class British women who were around Epstein (a number of whom had media links) and are probably still quite connected in the UK - (very) sadly I don't have any specific insight into this (although if anyone else does please feel free to DM me ).

Fascinating thread OP!

How much do you earn now and do you think you’ll still have a job in 5/10 years? It’s a dying industry and even sites like Buzzfeed failed to make digital work. If not, what do you think you’ll do?

A friend’s DD wants to be a journalist and I’ve been trying to tell her it’s not a great career choice because no future in it, but maybe I’m wrong

@HijabiVenus

What about editorial bias and a specific angle on a story, politicial or otherwise bias being The Way Things Are Done?

Sorry didn't quite understand this one. Have answered a few on bias/editorial slant though.

@TheHoIeInTheDoughnut

Hello OP Are stories hinting at the illicit (e.g. Oti and Kelvin) placed as

1. clickbait for all fans
2. designed to draw out denials for a new headline
3. hoping to bring out kiss n tells e.g. sexting

If a celebrity is not publicly 'out' but a story would effectively out them, even if said story proved they were a dick (threatening their ONS to keep their mouth shut) would the tabloids have to shut the story down?

With Strictly (and similar stuff), I think those stories can go either way: either journos know something is going on behind the scenes but can't prove it (unlike with the Katya kiss which was caught on camera) so they do innuendo-laden stories or nothing's actually going on and it's clickbait.

Re: outing someone, yeah I think it would basically be impossible to do a kiss and tell with someone where it wasn't publicly known the celeb in question is gay. There might be certain ways round it (I'm sure it has happened) but I can't think of any. Tbh something of that level would have been dealt with by my editors rather than me. Once legal were brought in on a story I'd be less involved simply because it would be my editor's decision to make rather than mine.

@TheHoIeInTheDoughnut

We would, however, run pics that we knew were unflattering (this was absolutely not my decision btw, way above my pay grade) but we would never make overt comments about them - either falsely positive or negative (which would be just plain rude)

Maybe not in your paper OP but I know what bloodydiet means - it has happened in the past on DM's ''Sidebar of shame'', they always seem to print a photo of Judy Finnegan and rave on about how great she looks (when it's always the least flattering pic of her ever and the woman's 72!)

To be fair it may well just be because they need to write something to accompany the pics and not even the Mail would outright say "isn't So and So looking OLD and MINGING!?" So the person writing it probably barely looks at the picture and just writes a load of guff. But that's online journalism - it's about quantity not quality. You just have to churn out as many stories as possible during your shift.

• Yes! Most of the upper showbiz circle knows it however it is up to him as it is his life... I like him, he has done well for himself!

His 'wife' is the beard just like all the previous girlfriends he paid (oops) paraded... She's his best friends wife etc etc

It was expected for him to come out after his mother died but he didn't...

Funny story, my Mum really fancies Simon (like a lot of older women) and I always told her that he was gay but she wouldn't believe me, so I told her to ask the person she house cleans for, has done for 20+ years, he is one of the highest & respected people in the UK showbusiness sector, so she asked him and he smiled and said 'Yes, that it is well known amongst the showbiz elite...

Mum was very upset, but is slipping back to the mindset that the guy she cleans for was lying too! (like she had a chance in any case!) hahaha*

@SurroundedByIdiotsEverywhere I love this story

With a lot of the celebs people think are gay, we would talk about it endlessly in the office but no one really had anything concrete so annoyingly I never got an answer (the one I really want to know about rhymes with Moony).

@Guylan

would also point out that unless you literally read the paper every day and personally saw those stories appearing 5-6 times a week, how you can confidently say it was "daily" as opposed to, say, people posting screenshots/links on social media every day but the stories they're linking to are actually from totally different time periods, ifyswim.

I would look at Daily Mail online almost daily at that time and there were a few DLA benefit cheats story every week during that time. The whole thing was so blatant and tied up with the Welfare Reform changes going on.

MailOnline is not the print paper. MailOnline is an aggregator, which means it has hundreds if not thousands of people constantly trawling the entire WWW - from Twitter to Mumsnet to, crucially, other newspapers - and re-writing them.

So the stories you may have seen every day on the site were actually from other newspapers, just regurgitated on MailOnline so it continues to stay at the top of Google search. It's not like those were all actually the Mail's stories.

That is why (among many other reasons) I don't believe there was some kind of conspiracy between the Government and the Mail to run lots of of stories about benefits cheats.