Scandal-Fishing

It was meant to be an interview on Elijah Wood’s latest movie “The Trust”. Instead the Sunday Times made it a kind of revealing article by using Wood’s statements on child abuse in Hollywood which casted a very poor light on the film industry. The abuse affected mostly young actors who are new in the business and want to be successful at any price, Wood apparently said. As an example he claimed Jimmy Savile, a former British DJ and television host who sexually abused young girls and boys over years of his life. After the Sunday Times had published the article, Wood posted a tweet on Twitter emphasizing that he indeed considers the topic to be very important but did not intend to reveal anything. It turned out that he recently had seen a documentary on child abuse in Hollywood. Still affected, he briefly talked with the reporter about it, while emphasizing that he could not speak with any authority.

The news obviously falsified Wood’s statement by leaving out an essential information! That Wood is not a reliable source in this case. The Sunday Times used his statements for their own purposes, knowing that revealing scandalous information on Hollywood — that even comes from a celebrity — would arouse the reader’s curiosity. But what is an unexpected, shocking information if it is only speculation related to a documentary?

I do not intend to blame the Sunday Times or any other newspaper that published Wood’s interview. I only wish the news, and we as consumers, would be more interested in the truths — even if it is not always that interesting — than in speculations (that might hurt people) only because they are exciting and lead to more clicks. Maybe the news would not search desperately for scandals if we changed our attitude. Poor Elijah Wood at least will probably be very careful what he is publicly saying in the future.