I don't understand British tabloids.

[mrv3000]

I really really really do not understand British tabloids. Shouldn't they be writing articles about Madonna's alien baby? I don't understand their obsession with Doctor Who. I don't read them to know for sure, but I don't think American tabloids spend their time writing about what "REALLY AND FOR TRUE WILL HAPPEN ON [insert show] OMG!!!"

I'm not going to even cut this, this latest "spoiler" is so ridiculous. The Sun's claiming that in the final eps, Martha and Mickey get married. Which, if you've even watched S4 of DW and S2 of Torchwood, you know is completely impossible.

Prof Docherty: Well dear, apparently you're supposed to marry Mickey.
Tom: Um, my name's Tom. Who's Mickey?? o_O
Martha: The guy I met once on the TARDIS? Bitch, please.

So to sum up in a question, do writing about nutso spoilers for a TV show really sell papers? (Not linking lest they get ad revenue for this nonsense.)

Comments

[papilio-luna.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure we have a drama that is per capita as popular as Doctor Who. I mean, does anything here get 50% audience shares aside from American Idol and suchlike?

We also don't have tabloids that pretend to be actual newspapers like the UK does. Which I don't get, because supposedly the UK has much stricter libel laws than we do? idgi.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure we have a drama that is per capita as popular as Doctor Who. I mean, does anything here get 50% audience shares aside from American Idol and suchlike?

Hmm. Maybe tabloids over here do write about American Idol. Don't know though.

I guess I'm just not used to being into a show that's so embedded into a national psyche.

We also don't have tabloids that pretend to be actual newspapers like the UK does. Which I don't get, because supposedly the UK has much stricter libel laws than we do? idgi.

British tabloids are very strange, foreign animals. *boggles*

[professor_mirror]

So to sum up in a question, do writing about nutso spoilers for a TV show really sell papers?

Well, yes. I don't know if American tabloids write about show spoilers, BUT at any given supermarket checkout you can find entire digest-sized magazines about nothing but soap opera spoilers, with names like Soap Opera Weekly.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Is that what those things are? :D I've never given them much thought, but I guess I figured they had articles about the actors. Loaded with spoilers, eh? HEH!

[principia-coh.livejournal.com]

It sounds like the tabs have done the usual 'put some element of a statement that's true about a completely different show, add random crap we made up, sprinkle in some characters who are unlikely at best to ever be seen on Who again, blend, and serve!'

I have to wonder if the reason the tabloids spend so much time talking weirdness about Who is because most of the time they're talking about fictional characters, and therefore libel doesn't even enter into it?

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

It sounds like the tabs have done the usual 'put some element of a statement that's true about a completely different show, add random crap we made up, sprinkle in some characters who are unlikely at best to ever be seen on Who again, blend, and serve!'

Betcha they've got a spinny wheel and everything! :D

I have to wonder if the reason the tabloids spend so much time talking weirdness about Who is because most of the time they're talking about fictional characters, and therefore libel doesn't even enter into it?

Good point.

[shinyopals.livejournal.com]

You're implying there's more important news to cover?

I mean, this basically means we don't have to invent tabloid news articles for Pete's World - we can just lift them wholesale from The Sun! ;-)

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

You're implying there's more important news to cover?

Well...

I mean, this basically means we don't have to invent tabloid news articles for Pete's World - we can just lift them wholesale from The Sun! ;-)

OOOOOH!

It's a shame that this particular one would take place in the other universe. Otherwise rose_m_t and alienish_being would probably have a few things to say about it. :D

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

..... FAIL, BRIT PRESS. FAIL.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

It's "let's pull names out of a hat" time!

[sunnytyler001.livejournal.com]

Lol! The Sun will never end to amuse me. They should write fanfiction!

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

It would be the crackiest badfic ever. :D

I think they're really the only thing that can out-crack RTD, and that's saying something.

[jo-siris.livejournal.com]

Yup.

like the little brat crying to get to the BGT final. That made front page.

Thios is why I stopped reading tabloids years ago

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Oy with the poodles!

[suzvoy.livejournal.com]

Doctor Who is VERY, VERY BIG NEWS here.

When they announced the new COMPANION it was reported in the serious news programs, not the 'entertainment news'.

Don't forget, the BBC had a 45 minute special JUST to announce who the new Doctor was going to be.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

:D

*PETS YOU ALL VERY VERY HARD*

*SQUISH SQUISH*

[ninamazing.livejournal.com]

...

*remembers alllllllll of the crazy and ill-advised things they have done on Doctor Who*

...

God, I HOPE that's not what's going to happen!!!!!!!!

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's just no WAY. In S4 Martha's already engaged to Tom. See the pretty ring?



While RTD's head is full of crack, he doesn't do silly relationship things, like putting two people together just for sensationalism. He's laid fairly lengthy groundwork on Martha/Tom, and he's not going to suddenly switch that.

This is just the Sun being the Sun.

[skippity-doo.livejournal.com]

The Sun really is the lowest of the low.

I have a major level of apathy towards newspapers anyway, but I really loathe tabloids.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too. They did get me to talk about them, but no linky for them!

[goldy-dollar.livejournal.com]

I am so utterly entertained by these spoilers, and would hate to live in the world where the Sun wasn't around to provide such amusement. XD

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

It does give us something to laugh at! :D

[gowdie.livejournal.com]

I distinctly remember a tabloid-esque paper, can't remember which one, doing a front page, plus multiple pages inside, expose on how Maddie and David were going to get married in the season finale of Moonlighting one year. They had lines of dialogue, and pictures! from filming, and everything.

Of course, it was all lies, lies, lies. To the point where they used models for the pictures. But I was all over that at the time. Bringing it to school. Reading it to friends.

If a show is big enough - it will sell.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Really? How funny! :D

[claidissa.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure British Tabloids get bored, considering England has about 20 celebrities who are in every show, and it gets tiring just talking about them, so they move on to fictional celebrities.

America, on the other hand, has more celebrities than you can shake a stick at, so they have more to choose from and gossip about.

Also, The Sun has an unhealthy obsession with Doctor Who. Like, unhealthy for the fans. :|

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Very unhealthy for the fans. Back before I knew better, they drove me into a tizzy a few times. :D

[olga-keepout.livejournal.com]

Um, yeah, not so much. XD I believe The Sun is conducting a study on fandom implosion fluctuations and has to make stuff up when there's nothing new for the reaction to be consistent.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

You know, I'd believe that too. :D

[spikewriter]

I still say this is the results of bored Sun employees and too long of a lunch (possibly with beer involved). "Oh, and then we'll say THIS! Yeah, that's funny."

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I would not be surprised. At all.

[elismor.livejournal.com]

*I* heard that Martha was going to marry Donna's grandfather....

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Martha/Wilf OTP!!!!

[okelay.livejournal.com]

I read that and was WTF?! Weddings?!?!
Martha and Mickey?!?!
And who's Donna gonna marry?
and, while I do love the idea of seeing Rose and Ten II, a wedding isn't what I had in mind for them

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Basically, I'll believe everything when I see it. :D

[frenchroast.livejournal.com]

You know, maybe I should move to England and try and get a job with the Sun or some other tabloid paper. I'm sure I could come up with crack for them to print. "Karen Gillian isn't REALLY going to be the Companion...she's going to be THE DOCTOR! Matt Smith is an ordinary bloke who The Doctor picks up as a companion..until he reveals that he is the new MASTER! And he's in love with the Doctor's daughter!"

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

BWAH!!! Now that I'd watch!

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

Britain's got Doctor Who...

America's got American Idol...

There's just something so wrong with that. Sometimes my country is just so stoopid. :(

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

I'm just glad I'm not into American Idol so I don't go nuts from the gossip/rumors.

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

I don't understand their obsession with Doctor Who.

Isn't this how we found out about Rose leaving in S2, though? Tabloids first, but then the mainstream news? (And were completely unable to avoid being spoiled, because all the Brits on LJ were like, "Bwuh? That's a spoiler? It's all over the news!")

Also, there's no way in heck RTD'd pull a surprise Martha/Mickey relationship out of his ass. He doesn't pull relationships out of his ass, even if he does that with other plot lines. *cough* If she's with anyone, she's with Tom.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Yup! The tabloids had the Rose news first. (Damn them!)

And I completely agree with you about RTD and relationships and plots. He does cracky plots, but moves very slowly when it comes to relationships.