miércoles, 20 de febrero de 2008

February 17, 2008

Boys Will Be Boys, Girls Will Be Hounded by the Media

The New York Times

A VIDEO of Heath Ledger hanging out at a drug-fueled party two years before his death would seem to constitute must-see material for a tabloid entertainment show.

But when such a video ended up in the hands of the producers of “Entertainment Tonight,” the program declined to broadcast it, a spokeswoman said, “out of respect for Heath Ledger’s family.” The 28-year-old actor died on Jan. 22 from what the medical examiner called an accidental overdose of prescription medications.

Amy Winehouse did not merit the same discretion. Images from a video that showed her smoking what a British tabloid, The Sun, said was a pipe of crack cocaine, as well as admitting to having taken “about six” Valium, were widely disseminated in the news media around the same time.

When Owen Wilson was hospitalized in August after an apparent suicide attempt, his plight was the subject of a single US Weekly cover story. Not so Britney Spears, recently confined in a psychiatric ward, who has inspired six cover stories for the magazine during the same time span.

When Kiefer Sutherland was released from the jail in Glendale, Calif., after serving a 48-day sentence for a drunken driving conviction, the event merited little more than buried blurbs.

Contrast this to Paris Hilton’s return to jail last year after a brief release to serve the rest of a 45-day sentence for a probation violation involving alcohol-related reckless driving. The event invited a level of attention that evoked the O. J. Simpson trial. Hordes of cameras enveloped the limousine that ferried the tear-streaked heiress to jail.

Yes, women are hardly the only targets of harsh news media scrutiny — just ask Mel Gibson. But months of parallel incidents like these seem to demonstrate disparate standards of coverage. Men who fall from grace are treated with gravity and distance, while women in similar circumstances are objects of derision, titillation and black comedy.

Some celebrities and their handlers are now saying straight out that the news media have a double standard.

“Without a doubt, women get rougher treatment, less sensitive treatment, more outrageous treatment,” said Ken Sunshine, a publicist whose clients include Ben Affleck and Barbra Streisand. “I represent some pretty good-looking guys, and I complain constantly about the way they’re treated and covered. But it’s absolutely harder for the women I represent.”

Liz Rosenberg, a publicist at Warner Bros./Reprise Records who represents Madonna, among others, also thinks sexism is at work. “Do you see them following Owen Wilson morning, noon and night?” she asked.

Some editors confirm that they handle female celebrities differently. But the reason, they say, is rooted not in sexism, but in the demographics of their audience.

The readership of US Weekly, for example, is 70 percent female; for People, it’s more than 90 percent, according to the editors of these magazines.

“Almost no female magazines will put a solo male on the cover,” said Janice Min, the editor in chief of US Weekly. “You just don’t. It’s cover death. Women don’t want to read about men unless it’s through another woman: a marriage, a baby, a breakup.”

Thus, magazine coverage of Mr. Ledger’s death gave way to stories about Michelle Williams, Mr. Ledger’s former girlfriend and the mother of his daughter; US Weekly, for instance, put the headlines “A Mother’s Pain” and “My Heart is Broken” atop a four-page spread. Mary-Kate Olsen, telephoned several times by the discoverer of Mr. Ledger’s body, came in for it, too: “What Mary-Kate Knows” trumpeted In Touch Weekly.

Indeed, while one of People’s best-selling issues of the last year was its cover story on Mr. Wilson’s suicide attempt, a follow-up cover on his recovery was one of the worst sellers, said Larry Hackett, the managing editor.

Conversely, he said, the Britney Spears story continues to flourish precisely because women are fascinated by the challenges facing a young mother.

“If Britney weren’t a mother, this story wouldn’t be getting a fraction of attention it’s getting,” Mr. Hackett said. “The fact that the custody of her children is at stake is the fuel of this narrative. If she were a single woman, bombing around in her car with paparazzi following, it wouldn’t be the same.”

Others, like Roger Friedman, an entertainment reporter for FoxNews.com, said that female stars tend to make more-compelling stories because “they are more emotional and open” about their problems. Male stars, he said, tend to be “circumspect.”

Rebecca Roy, a psychotherapist in Beverly Hills, Calif., who has several clients in the entertainment industry, said that male celebrities can often wriggle out of trouble with a rakish bad-boy shrug. But, she said, the double standard can reinforce the destructive behavior of female stars, pushing them to further depths of substance abuse and erratic behavior.

Ms. Roy said that troubled male stars like Robert Downey Jr. are encouraged to move past problems to a second act in their careers, while the personal battles of women like Lindsay Lohan or the late Anna Nicole Smith are often played for maximum entertainment value.

“With men, there’s an emphasis on, ‘he had this issue, but he’s getting over it,’ ” Ms. Roy said. “But with women, it’s like they keep at it, keep at it. It’s almost like taking the wings off of a fly.”

Ms. Min acknowledged that her magazine played down its coverage of Owen Wilson and Heath Ledger. Part of the reason, she said, was that female readers tend to be sympathetic toward young men in crisis.

“With Heath Ledger, people walked on eggshells trying to strike the right tone,” Ms. Min said, adding that “public sentiment for Heath Ledger factored into our coverage.”

Edna Herrmann, a clinical psychologist in Los Angeles, said that while schadenfreude is part of the enjoyment of star travails, women especially respond to female celebrities with commonplace demons. “Misery likes company,” Dr. Herrmann said.

But some believe the power of a celebrity’s publicist has more bearing on coverage than gender. “Entertainment Tonight” reversed its plans to show the video of Mr. Ledger following protests from stars like Natalie Portman and Josh Brolin organized by ID, which represented Mr. Ledger and still represents Ms. Williams.

In some cases, celebrities may be victims of their own appetites for media attention.

“It would seem to me that no one who demanded, who expected privacy, at the get-go was denied that privacy,” said Stan Rosenfield, a publicist who represents George Clooney.

And Harvey Levin, the managing editor of the gossip Web site TMZ.com, said that female stars are afforded every opportunity to move past their sins, as long as they clean up their behavior.

Nicole Richie, who took a beating generally for being a screw-up, has turned it around, and everyone’s cheering for her now,” Mr. Levin said of the former Paris Hilton sidekick and tabloid staple, now the mother of a month-old daughter.

Even if news media coverage is weighted in their favor, male celebrities aren’t exactly feeling immune from harsh scrutiny.

“There is certainly an argument for it being incredibly sexist, the attention that’s given to women and the hounding of them,” the actor Colin Farrell said at a recent party for his new film, “In Bruges.”

Mr. Farrell, who has attracted his share of attention, said such potential bias did not make him any less of a news media target. “If they catch me out and about,” he said, “they’ll go for it.”

As Mr. Farrell spoke in a room filled with journalists and photographers, he was not even sipping a beer.

Additional reporting by Paula Schwartz.

martes, 12 de febrero de 2008

Prensa y Poder

Por César Hildebrandt

En La Primera 12 de febrero de 2008


¿Hasta dónde debería de llegar el poder de la prensa? Depende de la prensa. Si hablamos de la prensa que investiga de verdad, que separa los intereses de sus propietarios de la necesidad de servir a la opinión pública, la respuesta debería de ser: hasta donde la búsqueda de la verdad se lo permita.

Sin embargo, esa prensa ­ideal –el Post de los Graham, el New York Times antes de la enfermedad del “patriotismo”– está hoy desapareciendo o se debilita delante de nuestros ojos.

Muerto Jesús de Polanco, por ejemplo, El País, el mayor y mejor periódico escrito en castellano, se debate entre la presión de los sucesores de Polanco por defender el imperio de Prisa y las demandas de independencia de sus ya viejos lectores. Y, claro, aquí cuenta la casi confesión sincera de Juan Luis Cebrián, fundador de El País y siempre consejero de Prisa: “La prensa no puede dejar de ser un negocio rentable”.

Eso es cierto. Lo que pasa es que los negocios rentables de las demás esferas no tienen como producto la búsqueda de la verdad, que suele ser tan incómoda y tan explosiva para los negocios más rentables del planeta (la especulación financiera, el petróleo, la fabricación de armamento, el narcotráfico, el lavado de dinero).

¿Cómo, entonces, buscar la verdad que puede herir a los más poderosos y seguir contando con el favor publicitario y bancario de los poderosos?

Esa es la clave de todo el problema. Y ante ese dilema, la respuesta global de la gran prensa ha sido desactivar lo más que se pueda sus equipos de investigación y, simultáneamente, dirigir esa investigación a escudriñar las debilidades de los políticos –lo cual está muy bien–, pero a costa de no meterse con el poder monstruoso de las corporaciones (el verdadero gobierno de la aldea global).

¿Estará el futuro, entonces, en el llamado “periodismo ciudadano”, el que surge de los blogs del Internet? Lo dudo: cada día que pasa los blogs demuestran, con las excepciones del caso, los mismos defectos de la gran prensa y los mismos vicios del periodismo: el culto al poder establecido, la rutina mental que lleva a ser parte mineralizada “de lo políticamente correcto”, la creencia implícita de que la alianza entre el libre mercado y la democracia electoral es el fin de la historia (es decir el cese de todas las rebeldías). Y con un agravante: muchos blogs de investigación no son sino la expresión iracunda de filias y fobias personales y de investigación profesional no tienen nada. Confunden, con todo amateurismo además, papas con camotes y encima editorializan con la certeza del que cree que dudar es pecado mortal.

¿Dónde está la luz al final del túnel? Quizás en periódicos hechos por periodistas, falansterios de la comunicación que vendan masivamente, que puedan prescindir olímpicamente de la publicidad y que sean premiados con el ­éxito gracias a su demostrada independencia y rigor.

Rigor. Esa es la palabra que a muchos espanta. Porque una cosa es tomar la declaración de un testigo dudoso y convertir eso en un panfleto lapidario para la víctima de turno –eso es lo que se hace con quienes no tienen posibilidad de defenderse en igualdad de condiciones– y otra es investigar con inteligencia y recursos en búsqueda de una verdad generalmente oculta entre malezas y papeles de apariencia indescifrable, entre empresas de paja y tercerías con sede en islas del Caribe. La investigación requiere mucho talento y un poco de dinero. En nuestro medio ambos factores escasean: las universidades construyen preguntadores ingenuos –no investigadores– y a las empresas la investigación les interesa, por lo general, si es libre de gastos y más aún si está dirigida contra algún adversario del periódico.

Y rigor es lo que ha perdido la prensa peruana. Con excepción de Páez, Cruz y Uceda –topos pacientes y exitosos la mayor parte de las veces–, los profesionales de la investigación brillan por su ausencia. Han sido reemplazados muchas veces por difamadores de comida rápida, armadores de tramas que no se sostienen en el tiempo pero que pueden impactar en el instante.

Si alguien se dedicara a investigar el verdadero poder del narcotráfico en el Perú, ¿no llegaría a conclusiones sorprendentes? ¿Por qué nunca se investigó la compra de dólares negros de Uchiza por el Banco de Crédito? ¿Por qué no se nos dice cuántas pesqueras han sido alcanzadas por el poder que compra todo? ¿Por qué nunca sabremos cuántos periodistas preocupados por el poder de la cocaína la consumen en abundancia y se sienten omnipotentes e impunes por su inhalación?

¿Se han dado cuenta de que hay gente muy interesada en que nos quedemos con el menú del narcotraficante y asesino Fernando Zevallos, ya condenado a 20 años de cárcel y residente forzado de Piedras Gordas?

¿Cuántos exportadores han sacado coca por el puerto del Callao desde el día en que alguien anuló el control de la supervisoras privadas de aduana?

¿Quién quiere hacernos creer que el narcotráfico es un ­asunto que atañe sólo a narcos ya encarcelados y a mochileros del Vrae cuando es también “un asunto de blancos” –como se dice en el Perú que Jorge Bruce acaba de describir tan bien–?

Posdata: El ministerio público debería concederle a la quebradiza fiscal Luz Loayza la gracia de quedarse en Lima. Total, tampoco es que Maynas se sublevaría ante su ausencia. Y en cuanto a ti, Aldito: ¿por qué tratas de enlodar tan enfermizamente a quienes te recuerdan, con un poco de humor, tu viaje pagado por Suez Energy? Y siempre te vas de narices, Aldo querido: si la DEA me siguiera los pasos, como en tus sueños de opio ­imaginas, ya lo habría soltado, a todo pulmón, la doctora Loayza, que trabaja allí. En cuanto a mi inglés: es muy malo, pero es mejor que tu finlandés. ¿Te acuerdas?