The Science of Conspiracy Theories

How true are tabloid newspapers?

How true are tabloid newspapers?

You see those scandal sheets when you go to the supermarkets. They have them boldly displayed near the checkout lines. They blare out in bold type and doctored pictures mostly sex scandals and celebrity nonsense.

The question you might ask is: how true are the stories in those tabloid newspapers?

According to Wiki a tabloid is a style of journalism that emphasizes topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news. This news is distributed in tabloid-sized newspapers. The major publishers of what is referred to as 'Supermarket Tabloids', include The Globe, The National Inquirer, Star, Weekly World News, and The Sun.

The tabloid scandal story that I remember seeing the most in recent years is the Robert Wagner-Natalie Wood affair, where new evidence has been found that links Robert Wagner to her death by drowning (the theory is that he pushed off of the boat after she got drunk). However, this is only one of the recurring articles of possible celebrity murder. In most cases there is no collaborating evidence to back up the accusation other than hearsay.

Recently, the most displayed articles deal with female celebrities becoming dowdy looking. They're usually caught wearing a bikini on some private beach. The problem with this is the fact that pictures can be Photoshopped to look anyway the artist wants them to. The Paparazzi are paid big bucks to get these kinds of photos and the tabloids eat them up.

The other more popular article deals with imminent death of celebrities. It seems that several famous people are near death from some fatal disease or condition, and they show a photo of the emaciated subject. I seem to remember seeing Cher in this situation several times. That's just too morbid, and if the subject doesn't die it proves that the article is just a bunch of sensationalized garbage.

Sex scandals make up the rest of the garbage. In many cases it about cheating husbands or wives with the scandalous and incriminating photos to prove the claims. Some of these articles could be true. Let's face it, many celebrity marriages break up because of extramarital affairs. This is a given among Hollywood couples. To them marriage is a merry-go-round, or should it be marry-go-round.

I'm not sure why anyone buys these rag sheets. They're mostly false and misleading. I suppose it's because people like gossip and enjoy seeing the mighty fall. It's human nature to revel in the marital affairs and goings on of celebrities. It's like following a true-life soap opera. I can understand that.

What I don't understand is the tendency of these tabloids to propagate doomsday stories. If you believe them we are in imminent danger of the world ending. I'm not sure why the publishers would like that because it would mean the end of their money stream from suckers who believe anything in print or on TV.

Thanks for reading.