Press Council confirms gossip mags are given leeway for ‘factual exaggeration and inaccuracies’
The Press Council has said readers of gossip magazines don’t “necessarily assum[e] that everything presented is factual”, and therefore leeway should be granted for “factual exaggeration and inaccuracies”.
The comments came as part of a ruling against Woman’s Day, which breached Press Council rules in a May 2019 headline about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
The front cover headline – ‘Palace confirms the marriage is over! Why Harry was left with no choice but to end it’ – led to a page 12 article titled ‘This is the final straw! Bombshell revelations about Meghan push a distraught Harry to breaking point’.
perfect…so on one hand media outlets are allowed to report non-truths and on the other hand the federal police has the ability to silence any media outlet that wants to the tell the truth…amazing country we live in!
Dont forget that they also (continue to) support blatant racism:
https://staging.mumbrella.com.au/daily-telegraph-cartoon-implying-asylum-seekers-are-dirty-predators-cleared-by-press-council-617406
No. The front page is deliberately set up to fool the reader into believeng that there is a specific story within the publication, and that the story will be exciting and informative reading about the supposed impending collapse of the marriage of Harry and Megan.
The implications are untrue, and they are given false support by a superimposed and equally untrue implication that the Palace has confirmed their validity.
This isn’t even bad journalism, it is a bald-faced lie intended to sell a story by deception. The excuse that the readers expect “a level of exaggeration in cover lines and headlines” is a cynical comment demeaning the public who are driven to pay for this so-called information.
Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt were getting married a while ago!!! Where’s the great wedding photos? Also Jennifer Anniston was pregnant…gee, say 11 months ago…where’s the baby pics New Idea/Womans Day??? Only a couple of the most ridiculous stories these mags run every week. The only things in them that are real are recipes or crossword puzzles. No wonder readership is pathetic.
This confirms what many have long suspected: the press council needs the coin, and would rather protect Bauer media’s APC membership fees than hold it to account for its Woman’s Day or NW’s misleading cover lines.
For heavens sake, just because ‘the Palace didn’t make a complaint’ does this make it ok to print such rubbish? I can’t believe this is the comeback. As hopeless as the publisher.
Through the systematic devaluing of facts.