[Summer Storm Pictures]

No need for budding journalists to waste money in college anymore. Only in America has the Internet turned journalism into a sad collection of amateur reporters who not only can't spell, but don't know how to research as well. Some idiot at WENN seems to believe that Jessica Biel's ''father'' is who he was on 7th Heaven, Stephen Collins (the Star Trek connection to this rant). Her ''real'' father is named Jon.

The actual link to the IMDb article: Biel's Father Fuels Timberlake Marriage Rumours

Have we really regressed to this?

IMDb picked up the amateurish WENN story but apparently didn't even read it themselves. Just in case IMDb catches it or WENN fixes their dumb-arse mistake, I've captured it for posterity in the image below:

[kevin]

Maybe it was a typo - they maybe meant 'TV dad' or 'onscreen dad' - given that as an actor he's happy just to be remembered and her real dad wouldn't comment probably.

[Summer Storm Pictures]

Originally Posted by kevin

Maybe it was a typo - they maybe meant 'TV dad' or 'onscreen dad' - given that as an actor he's happy just to be remembered and her real dad wouldn't comment probably.

It could be, but ''real'' journalists also don't make typos.

[kevin]

Originally Posted by Summer Storm Pictures

It could be, but ''real'' journalists also don't make typos.

Well, they probably do...they just have them caught before going to print!!

[Summer Storm Pictures]

Originally Posted by kevin

Well, they probably do...they just have them caught before going to print!!

Just ''for the record'' you aren't by chance defending this kind of ''slacker journalism'' I hope.

(or should I refer to it as ''stalker journalism''?)

[mmoore]

That's not a typo. That's bad writing, and worse reporting.

[horatio]

It's not like celebrity gossip has anything to do with real journalism.

Of course the internet makes it easy and cheap for people do create any kind of news services; like in any other medium, as consumer you have to find out the good stuff for yourself .

[MrQ1701]

I've never considered celebrity tabloid and gossip to be real journalism. It's just entertainment for some people. I say "lighten up"

[cjopbj]

While I think the original example isn't journalism at all, just silly celebrity nonsense, the topic itself has a point. We subscribe the the Washington Post and it is extremely easy to see the impact budget cuts have had on the paper. The number of typos has skyrocketed and the amount of news has diminished.

All of publishing is in flux. Not just newspapers. Books, too. Publishing is driven by the quest for the next blockbuster at the expense of the literary novel. We are in a transitional time between paper and on-line access to content and talent.

[MonsieurHood]

Tabloid Journalism and paparazzi that won't ever leave famous people alone and in some cases get them injured (and in one famous case possibly killed) is the cheapest, basest, and most unnecessary form of media. I wish we'd just dump stuff like this. We need to drop the hunger the general populace has for trash. Back in the day, even a celeb could have a life, could raise their children and eat in peace in their own back yard without a telescopic lens or a overflying helicopter invading their privacy. Nowadays there is virtually nowhere celebrities can escape the hounding. No wonder so many of them are basket cases that spend half their lives in rehab. If you'd leave Brittany Spears alone long enough to get her act together, she just might.