So what, exactly, does actress Angelina Jolie think about the Thanksgiving holiday? Answer: It’s definitely too soon to tell, but it would be nice to hear from Jolie on the subject. We haven’t, and therein lies the problem.
The story — one of those we columnist types can really have fun with — came to light late last week. It appeared on some Web site named popeater.com, and if the name doesn’t strike you as one that conjures up images of what’s called “a reliable news source,” then you’re not alone. But the Huffington Post Web site is considered a reliable news source, and it linked to Popeater reporter Rob Shuter’s “story.” Here’s how it reads:
“While everyone is preparing to give thanks tomorrow, one of America’s most famous families, the Jolie-Pitts, have decided to sit this Thanksgiving out.” At this point, Shuter tells readers how he came by this stunning revelation, quoting his source directly.
“Angelina Jolie hates this holiday and wants no part of rewriting history like so many other Americans.” What follows should have made all those reading this tale stop dead in their tracks. That would be Shuter’s phrase “a friend of the actress tells me.”
That’s his source? An unnamed “friend of the actress”? What would have been so wrong with calling Jolie and getting a direct quote from her?
Oh yeah, it would have smacked too much of journalism.
Shuter continued with details from this unnamed but chatty friend: “To celebrate what the white settlers did to the native Indians, the domination of one culture over another, just isn’t her style. She certainly doesn’t want to teach her multicultural family how to celebrate a story of murder.”
That’s not what Thanksgiving celebrates, and murder is definitely the one thing all cultures have in common. But that’s not the focus of this column. It’s about shoddy journalism, the kind that doesn’t give Jolie the fair shake of letting her speak for herself.
“Angelina gets so grossed out by Thanksgiving that she has made sure her family will not be in America this year on Thursday,” Shuter reported. Who told him that? “An insider,” one, apparently, as nameless as the friend. And another unnamed source, a “family friend,” supposedly told Shuter this: “If Brad wants turkey, he will have to cook it himself. For Angie, it will be another day when America tries to rewrite history.”
Until Jolie tells the media what she thinks about Thanksgiving, we’ll never know if it’s the “family friend” who’s trying to rewrite current events. If Jolie chooses to do that, fine. If not, then her thoughts about Thanksgiving are in that province called her own darned personal business. Those Internet cruisers and commentators and bloggers who are reporting her alleged comments about Thanksgiving as though they were fact need to give it a rest.
The Los Angeles Times is a responsible news organization. One of its bloggers, Patrick Goldstein, is also skeptical about the veracity of the Jolie-Thanksgiving story. Unfortunately, Goldstein seems to be one of those journalists whose day isn’t complete without bashing Fox News. Goldstein rightly chided Fox News for reporting the story as though it were fact, without taking the Huffington Post to task for linking to a story based on egregiously shoddy journalism.
Bad journalism isn’t, or shouldn’t be, a liberal versus conservative issue. Too much of it is infecting the “blogosphere,” which Les Payne, the brilliant and esteemed Newsday editor and columnist, has derided as “the Wild West, without any sheriffs.”
Whatever her views on Thanksgiving, I’m betting Jolie would agree with Payne’s assessment.
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
