Mr. Magazine

In an article published in The New York Times on May 9, 2005 Janice Min, the editor in chief of US Weekly, justified the fact that her magazine paid $500,000 for the pictures of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt on the beach together by telling the Times’ reporter Lia Miller “that every magazine was still looking for that one special photograph. ‘Usually the big-ticket photos involve a pregnancy, a wedding, a breakup or a hook-up.'” Well, last week OK Weekly landed such a picture of the pregnant Jamie Lynn Spears. Us Weekly, in this week’s issue, slams Jamie Lynn’s mother Lynne Spears for selling the story to OK Weekly. US Weekly goes on to write, “Lynne soon sought out OK! magazine, a struggling British-owned tabloid that pays generously for celeb interviews…” OK Weekly is now a struggling tabloid! OK Weekly, in fact has been growing in circulation in the United States and have published several editions world-wide. I, for one, do not agree with the concept of anyone been paid to be interviewed, but for the kettle (US Weekly) to call the pot (OK Weekly) black strikes me as funny to say the least. If Lynne Spears made the same offer to US Weekly, those same pictures would have appeared on the cover of US Weekly, and no other magazine would have attacked the rest of the magazines because they did not win the bidding. It is amazing what passes today as journalism; journalism with no profound impact on the life of any of the readers. Shame on all of us and on all of those who try to push this type of media as journalism.