Rebel Wilson’s defamation win is a warning for other publishers
Rebel Wilson’s defamation case win is not just about the money – it’s a dangerous precedent for other celebrity gossip magazines and the wider industry, Mumbrella’s Zoe Samios argues.
It’s not uncommon for a publisher or journalist, particularly in the celebrity gossip space, to be threatened with a defamation suit.
But when Rebel Wilson won her case against Bauer Media, many in the industry were eating their words after declaring the publisher would emerge triumphant.
Rebel Wilson in Pitch Perfect
Or they could, y’know, do some of the stuff they teach in journalism school. Only publish things you’ve independently verified via at least one other source and not just make shit up for a good cover line.
What an incredibly poorly authored and biased story. Even that first line ‘it’s a dangerous precedent for other celebrity gossip magazines and the wider industry’, do you mean to say that it is dangerous precedent to tell the truth!!!
Zoe, you should work for Trump, he would love you…
I’m struggling to see any downside to the court decision. Its basic cause and effect. Do your job poorly, not much consequence. Do your job so badly that goes against you in court…..big consequences. The gossip magazine industry has just been shown how far society is willing to let them stretch the rubber band before letting it flick back and sting their fingers. Now they know.
Being told to lift your game isn’t a bad thing.
“The public often take claims in weekly gossip magazines with a grain of salt – how many times has Jennifer Aniston been pregnant now?”
That’s a big assumption. Although you’d be unlikely to find many people who completely accept all gossip magazine claims at face value, they add up over time.
Gossip magazine fodder often then informs other media, so that radio or TV hosts talk about what is in the latest issue, further publicising any claims.
It certainly isn’t unheard of for gossip magazines to take a few photos out of context, slap a story around how a star is ‘out of control’ and then that becomes the narrative because that’s what gets the attention.
Also, this outcome has to extend further than just print publications – it suddenly could make Australia a very attractive forum for defamation hearings for what get published online as well.
As recently retired veteran journalist Mark Day wrote, these magazines feature “made up stories about celebrities”. So much to read and view online these days – most of it for free. If World War Three broke out tomorrow you could read about it for no charge in scores of online newspapers around the world. Very hard to get an audience, unless it is specialist media – finance, health and beauty, cars, etc. Global media outlook is very grim. With the exception of Mumbrella, which latest figures confirm is going from strength to strength.
Not a warning – try quality journalism and you wont get sued.Rebel should have got doubled that. Just sayin.
Couldn’t agree more with A Journo. This should be compulsory reading for anyone putting out articles, including yourselves.
The real winner here is Russell Crowe and his fantastic tweet. Go Russ!