Bloggers threaten credibility of news
DOWNTOWN Two of Santa Monica’s hottest hangouts for celebrities were recently featured in news stories that later proved to be false, raising questions about the accuracy of the ever-emerging “blogosphere” and the public’s seemingly insatiable appetite for celebrity gossip.
The first story featured Donald Trump, the exclusive Buffalo Club and a $10,000 tip. The second involved “Mean Girls” actress Lindsay Lohan, Shutters on the Beach and a bloody syringe.
While both stories were trumped up, that didn’t stop FoxNews.com, Defamer, E! Online, the Huffington Post and other media outlets from running with them.
It turns out the Trump story was fabricated by a 4-month-old “snap and gag” site called Derober.com. Derober is run by two brothers from Venice Beach, both professional photographers, and specializes in doing funny things with celebrity-related images.
The two doctored a receipt and Trump’s signature and started blogging using a phony sorority girl named “Leslie Matthews,” a fake friend of a nonexistent waiter at the This not just in Buffalo Club named Billy D, who received the bogus tip. Within a few days, the story was picked up.
Trump later denied the story, telling the New York Post’s Page Six that he wasn’t even in California that day and that “this was done by the stupid restaurant to get publicity.”
The creators of the hoax celebrated their achievement, saying they have made people more aware of the “laziness” of mainstream media.
“We must thank the following Web sites for propelling the ‘Trump Tip’ hoax to the front of Fox News’ and Huffington Post’s home page: WWTDD, Defamer and Dlisted,” wrote John Resig, 29, one of the creators of the Derober.com. “We’ve gotten dozens of e-mails from newspaper editors from around America thanking us for exposing the ‘blatant laziness of mainstream news media (Fox News).’ We never aimed that high, of course. That would make us megalomaniacs.
“We were just hoping to make beer money for this Friday’s midget toss at Kilroy’s Tavern.”
The story involving Lohan was reported by Star magazine, a supermarket tabloid celebrity news and gossip that is known to have fabricated stories in the past to sell copies and has been the focus of several libel lawsuits involving celebs like Reese Witherspoon, Shannen Doherty and Aretha Franklin.
The story, which was reported Monday, said Lohan and her now ex-boyfriend Riley Giles spent three days at Shutters holed up in their room, depleting the mini-bar and leaving dirty towels and cigarette butts strewn about their suite.
The magazine also says: “Staffers went in to clean and were shocked,” says the source. “It was a pigpen. There was filth everywhere and the room stank of cigarette smoke.
“There was also a bloody syringe that someone left lying on the bedside table on a room service tray. Hotel security photographed it before calling someone to remove it because it was considered hazardous waste.”
A quick call to Shutters’ public relations company, Murphy O’Brien, revealed the story was false, at least, that’s the hotel’s story.
“Lindsay is welcome at the hotel any-time,” said Pieter Ruig, vice president of Murphy O’Brien. “We do not have any records of Lindsay being at the hotel when this incident was supposed to have occurred and we question the accuracy of this report.”
Ruig said it is “frustrating” to be the subject of an allegedly bogus report and it is something “we want to address as soon as possible and get the truth out there.”
There has been no word from Lohan’s camp about the story.
Pop culture expert Leo Braudy, a professor at the University of Southern California specializing in fame, celebrity and mass media, said the reports have the potential to seriously damage the credibility of the media, especially when respected news outlets run the stories without checking if they are true or not. Many stories involving celebrities are false, which is why people should be even more skeptical than normal when reading these stories.
“What do we try to teach students in school, to be critical thinkers and never rely on one source,” Braudy said. “You have to check things out, be vigilant, especially with the Internet.
“Just because it’s on the Internet doesn’t mean it’s true.”
Braudy said the often-overwhelming desire to be in the know clouds peoples’ judgment and makes some editors sacrifice accuracy for immediacy.
“I think a very crucial part of American attitudes towards fame and fortune is wanting to know what’s going on behind the scenes, the dirt, the real story,” Braudy said. “But what happens often is that the real story isn’t that at all.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 11, 2007. Read the original PDF.