Writing in The New York Times, Ryan Linkof, a scholar who has studied tabloid journalism, says that it is “for the better” that tabloids violate privacy in pursuit of the tantillizing scoop. Linkof argues that you don’t have to support illegal activity such as hacking the phones of innocent victims to defend intrusive reporting.
Linkof says most tabloid publications avoid illegal practices and carry on in the journalistic tradition, playing an important role in exposing shameful practices, case in point, the stories of the extramarital affair of John Edwards, Democratic candidate for president, a significant event.
Linkof says, “They (the tabloids) exist to break down the barriers of access that keep social elites at a remove from ordinary people” and in doing so relieve tensions in democratic societies. -db
From an op-ed in The New York Time, July 19, 2011, by Ryan Linkof.