Letters to the Editor
-
I hope your lawyers have read this item
Accusing someone of having an STD is libelous as hell. Plus a violation of privacy.
Wow, you have such sterling journalistic ethics at Salon.
You'd better pray that it's true, or else you could end up feeding some African orphans against your will.
-
You know what, I think you guys truly suck for this
You guys have no idea whether that STD story is true or false -- and you printed it anyways.
Not only was that really stupid from a legal point of view -- given how seriously libel juries have taken public accusations of STDs in the past -- but it was also grossly unethical from a professional point of view.
You are the people who are going to save the Democratic Party from itself?
Give a f***ing break, please.
-
One more reason I won't be renewing my sub
The Pitt/Jolie STD allegation is beyond the pale. It's stomach-turning that you'd publish something so absolutely unsubstantiated, no matter who had already done so. What, this person (whose bona fides I'm sure you've exhaustively researched) is privy to highly intimate information about Pitt and Jolie because he or she happens to work at Fox? So I guess the janitor at Salon knows who you're making it with, right? Oh, and the outcome of your latest gynecological exam as well. Salon is after all a much smaller organization, and it's much more likely that the janitor there has the goods on your sex life than that one Fox employee has an inside scoop on two of the thousands of other people employed by a huge multinational corporation simply by virtue of that entirely temporary mutual affiliation. Jesus, how inane.
-
Great writing, but no sense of journalistic responsibility
They have such fine writers here. Everyone at Salon is a really great writer. The quality of the writing at Salon is undeniable.
But the difference between a journalist and a writer is not who signs your paycheck. That difference comes from the standards you apply towards your writing.
What they have at Salon is a bunch of really great writers playing at being journalists.
In real journalism, you don't accuse celebrities of having STDs even if you have their medical records right in front of you.
And you certainly don't accuse them of such a thing if your only source of information is a single anonymous person.
I think everyone on the staff here should be required to take a course in journalistic ethics from a nearby J-school.
How can you save the world when you can't even save yourselves?
-
Kenny G's birthday party?
It's a world beyond my reach: publicists issuing dating updates at each other, billionaires eating cake with major-label pablum. These people know each other, and they each think that what the other is doing is vital.
-
Angelina will become a lot less attractive
If it turns out she has warts all over her hoo-ha.
Or cold sores.
As Eddie Murphy said, STD's are like luggage. You keep them forever.
-
STD's
It's not only libelous but stupid to print. If they just did a minute of thinking, they'd realize this story made no sense. Brad and Jen stayed together for many months after Brad finished Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Wouldn't the rash have shown up earlier? And even after they officially separated, they lived together for another month or two and behaved like a couple. Again, is this the behavior of a woman who dumped her husband because she got an STD from him and his mistress? And when she did the Vanity Fair interview, she said she doesn't know anything for certain, but she chooses to believe her husband when he said nothing happened while he was filming with Angie. She even said in the VF article that she was "shocked" by seeing that they were together in those Africa pics. So again, she had no definitive proof of an sexual relationship prior to the pics coming out.
-
Patricia Schwarz, we get it
You're very upset on behalf of some multimillionaire celebs. Boo hoo.
-
STD's
I'm offended enough about you printing this story from a single "anonymous" source to actually write -- something I rarely do. First, any source that is "anonymous" isn't very trustworthy -- you should know that. Second, this story makes no sense based on Jennifer Aniston's own words after she and Pitt split. Third, this story, at this late date -- what's it been, a year and a half since Aniston and Pitt announced they were separating? -- smells like a Brangelina-hating plant. Make better, more responsible ethical choices next time, please.
-
the jen / brangelina thing:
even for a gossip column, that's oversharing!
-
STDs
Even if it's true, it's a horrible thing to print. As a reader, I don't want to know that about anyone, no matter how famous they are, or how much I like or dislike them. Congratulations for reaching what must be an all-time low in gossip journalism.
-
An STD accusation is libelous on its face
CJ, you're using class war to justify bad journalism. I think that's pretty dumb. Bad journalism isn't okay when wealthy people are the victims. If Salon has no journalistic standards, that's eventually going to end up burning you too.
They want credibility when it comes to unmasking lies told by Bush.
You do not you build credibility as an unmasker of lies told by the mighty by printing scandalous allegations that are libelous on their face with only the word of an anonymous hearsay source.
-
Spare us the indignation for a minute
If someone reported that Ann Coulter, who seems to be Salon readers' 21st Century version of Hitler and Vlad the Impailer, had a juicy STD, you people would be all over it. All the talk of "that is terrible" and "none of your business" and "libel" would be out the window. Instead, the talk would be of her hypocrisy, insults, name calling, etc.
-
hey spare us
i ESPECIALLY don't want to know if ann coulter has an std! nor any other repulsivecan. gossip is supposed to be sexy, and i can't imagine anything less sexy than a republican STD. however, brangelina's alleged STD is still something i just didn't want to know.
-
You're still on about the STD thing?
Oh. See, what really got me chortling was this:
Lohan's rep, Leslie Sloane, says the claim is a big fat fib: "...they are not dating and they did not go to dinner together. Lindsay is dating several men who live overseas."
Oh, reeeeeaaaally? Several men? I can't help but think that, shortly after this quote, Leslie Sloane was fired.