OPINION

PLEASE! HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME!

BRITANY SPEARS AND HER PAPARAZZO “BOYFRIEND”

PAPARAZZO ADNAN GHALIB TEACHES THE SO CALLED
MAINSTREAM MEDIA A LESSON IN MAKING AND
CREATING NEWS FOR PROFIT

(January 11th, 2007 8:30AM PST)

BY ERS NEWS

Across the media landscape there is but one BIG story these days. No it's not the War in Iraq, nope... not the Democratic and Republican Presidential Primaries, sorry, and last but not least, not even the BCS college football Championship... there is only one BIG story these days: Britany Spears: Pop Star and Train wreck, coming straight at you!.

Spears may have just lost custody of her two young children in a bitter custody dispute with her former husband Kevin Federline. That is a story that not many are really interested in says editor Shelby Grad of the Los Angeles Times "We wouldn't have put three reporters on a story just about her custody case -- which is sad, but similar to hundreds of others? What made this especially newsworthy is the role of the paparazzi in L.A. -- it's big business here and it affects people; if you live in L.A., you see it." That may be true in one sense, but what is it about the Spears saga that makes her case more compelling, more interesting to readers of the LA Times?. I have an idea but the LA Times editor just won't come clean and admit it: it's called "selling papers". He should talk to Adnan Ghalib for some "media product" marketing pointers. A story in the LA Times about a bitter custody dispute involving a formerly married couple of an accountant and a bus driver who lived in Santa Monica, just wouldn't have the same sales appeal. LA Times editors know that, but they're not being honest about it. Britany Spears gets coverage because she sells papers, and moves the product as the purveyors of media outlets, as well as paparazzi and even used car salesman like to say.

The Times, Los Angeles' major newspaper had to defend itself from an onslaught of criticism from its readers, when it assigned three reporters to the Spears saga when the pop singer ended up having the police called to her home in a custody dispute with her former husband. The rest you can read about on TMZ.com, the real paper of record when it comes to chronicling the every move of celebrities and would be celebrities.

But the LA Times was not alone, even the Associated Press got into the act when a memo from one of its west coast editors was leaked to the media website "Romenesko" showing the AP also needed to be all over the story. See the AP memo here: (http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13040) Local LA Times apologist former journalist turned blogger Kevin Roderick and his popular “LAObserved” blog even managed to pay attention to this story. Which is saying a lot.

Enter paparazzo Adnan Ghalib: he and Spears have been (if you believe what TMZ says ... which ERS does not most of the time) have been an "item" for sometime. The pop starlet somehow falling for one of the very horde of photographers that chase and stalks her every move. Adnan. it seems, is a man with a good business plan. He becomes Britany's new "boyfriend" and low and behold he seems to come up with "exclusive" photos of the couple, wherever they go. Ghalib, has his own "media outlet." He works with, Finalpixx, (http://finalpixxceleb.com/) an LA based paparazzi photo agency. His photo agency is getting a lot of attention these days since he started dating (or whatever he is doing) Britany Spears. On the Finalpixx website, rumors and claims and denials about the paparazzo's relationship with Spears are all the rage. From he's not seeking 5 million in exchange for his exclusive story, to a recent 20/20 interview on ABC News about Spears, which the site claims was just a coincidence.

It all sounds a bit much in our book. But at least paparazzo Ghalib is clear, he's going to make some money on all this and this is America so why not; at least he's honest about it! Now maybe the AP, LA Times, TMZ (well they admit what they do, and don't apologize for it (most of the time) and the rest of the “mainstream” press should just go take a shower and stop acting like Spears is some sort of "news" story: she's not, she's a "news product."

Way to go Adnan, ERS hopes you and Britany are splitting the cut! Also, nice move on faking out TMZ with the flight to New Jersey. Whoever executed on that one, deserves the ERS "exclusive media moneymaker" story award. TMZ, printed what it said was an exclusive report (http://www.tmz.com/2008/01/09/adnan-takes britney-to-the-big-apple/) confirming Britany and her boyfriend Ghalib had taken off going to New York. It was all vetted as we say in the news business: they had the time, the jet and the destination. Oops! only one problem -- it wasn't true! Spears and Adnan were not on the plane. The plane did take off, at least they got that right. Nothing like a good TMZ BOGUS exclusive .. the difference between a gossip site and a news site.

Exclusives these days are bought and paid for by most media outlets. It's an open secret, the only trick is how its done. So, way to go Adnan, nice work and good luck with your new business venture! Don't worry when the so called legitimate news outlets like the LA Times, AP and the rest thumb their nose at you, while at the same time, doing exactly what you are doing, just not as well.