National Enquirer says 'SORRY' for 100% fake story about 'gay lover' of Philip Seymour Hoffman
No wonder the general public has such low regard for the fourth estate. It's in large part because they confuse what rags like the National Enquirer do with real journalism.
For those of you who might have missed this, the National Enquirer published a front page story three days after actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died of a drug overdose. Its banner headline screamed that Hoffman's secret gay lover was a NY playwright, David Bar Katz, and that the two of them had freebased cocaine the night before the actor's death.
Turns out the story was 100% fake. The eldest of Katz's three sons had alerted his father to the article. Katz was quoted widely in the story although he never had even spoken to anyone from the paper. Once it was published, of course, it went viral.
The National Enquirer settled as soon as Katz hired a lawyer. Katz did not want any money, but instead had the tabloid agree to putting $45,000 annually toward a prize for an unproduced play. And the rag had to run this full-page ad in today's NYT. It got off light in my view.
For those of you who might have missed this, the National Enquirer published a front page story three days after actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died of a drug overdose. Its banner headline screamed that Hoffman's secret gay lover was a NY playwright, David Bar Katz, and that the two of them had freebased cocaine the night before the actor's death.
Turns out the story was 100% fake. The eldest of Katz's three sons had alerted his father to the article. Katz was quoted widely in the story although he never had even spoken to anyone from the paper. Once it was published, of course, it went viral.
The National Enquirer settled as soon as Katz hired a lawyer. Katz did not want any money, but instead had the tabloid agree to putting $45,000 annually toward a prize for an unproduced play. And the rag had to run this full-page ad in today's NYT. It got off light in my view.