DANGER – Being Misinterpreted by A Reporter Out To Get You! Ask Will Smith
I have to give credit to celebrity gossip sites. They take the alleged facts and do a pretty efficient smear job on some really decent people. The latest episode involves Philadelphia’s own super star Will Smith. Will is smart, gracious , respectful and a model of decency. So it would be fitting that some quotes in a Scottish newspaper would be spread throughout the ‘he said, she said” gossip sites in an attempt to turn Will into something that he is not.
The internet is abused by some slanderous writers who don’t give a hoot about the facts.
Here’s the latest.
The Daily Record of Scotland offered this quote from Smith, which was part of a larger interview: “Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘let me do the most evil thing I can do today’… I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was good.’”
The writer of the article suggested that Will thinks everyone is basically good.
The various gossip sites made it appear that Will Smith said that Hitler was a “good person.” He did not say that.
Here’s how Smith replied:
“It is an awful and disgusting lie…It speaks to the dangerous power of an ignorant person with a pen. I am incensed and infuriated to have to respond to such ludicrous misinterpretation.”
He added, in a written statement, “Adolf Hitler was a vile, heinous vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet.”
I am glad he responded so quickly and definitively. Stories like this spread so fast that they ARE misinterpreted. Will Smith is not a bigot. Will Smith is no Mel Gibson.
This kind of smear gives our business a bad name.
Over the years, even as a working reporter, I have learned to be wary of irresponsible people in the news business with an ax to grind. They are out there, and they are dangerous.
Be careful what you read. And consider the source.
Comments(33)
Growing up in Brooklyn in the 50s, I took everything written in the New York Times as truth until my mother enlightened me about how that newspaper had misrepresented the genocide of the Armenian people early in the twentieth century. (This concern with the Armenian nation likely accounts for the expression discouraging food waste around my house being “Think of the starving Armenians!” rather than the more usual “Think of the people starving in China!”)
Around this time I decided to change my career goal from journalist to lawyer
It is a shame that celebrities like Will Smith are misquoted in publications by gossip sites on the Internet. I personally don’t have an ax to grind with anyone, but I did give you good information on the Andy Reid story to prove that the editor did extort the Reids into writing their article for them. Just Google Jodi Mac 950 and you will hear how the editor of Philly Mag got a response from the Reids. Also check out Bob Huber’s interview on Philly.com on 12/23 in the inqlings section. I may be dumb but I am not stupid. If you are a reporter and you let the subject of a story have control of the story then that is all it becomes, a story.
There is no doubt your mother was right- I too idolized The Grey Lady in my youth- until I determined that she was truly a disgraceful Pink Lady with one not-so-thinly veiled agenda.
So you changed your goal from journalist to lawyer. Well- there’s an inmprovement!
I give Will Smith credit for having such an empathetic view of life, and trying to see the good the surely lies in each of us. That doesn’t mean he is blind to the bad and evil that exists; he is just blessed to also be able to see the good, which is a rare and special thing.
loved your piece on the will smith smear. you will go down in history as this town’s fairest,knowledgable and interesting reporter of all time!
Larry,
loved your piece on will Smith. I always admired and respected you as journalist, this is just one more thing to confirm why I do. You are, simple put, one of the best this city has ever had. It’s rare for journalist to criticize their colleagues, perhaps if it were done more often less of this dangerous and petty reporting would be done. Thank you.
I understand that Will Smith was misquoted and is not likely anti-semetic. However, Mr. Kane’s conclusion that he is no Mel Gibson is an unnecessary and inaccurate accusation that Mel Gibson is an anti-semite. The situations are quite different and not analogous, and in fact Mel Gibson apologized and was remorseful for what he said while under the influence of alcohol and he is an admitted alcoholic (not an excuse but an explaination for his actions). Let’s forgive Mel Gibson unless he proves otherwise in the future, and shame on Mr Larry Kane for unnecessarily smearing his name to make his point about Will Smith.
Larry-
Great piece. I hate to say it, but sometimes I have to wonder what is worse: a governmentally controlled media, or the one we have today with its vendettas, politicizing, and hype?
Mr. Smith is the one thing the media hates more than you can imagine: a good celebrity… He is not a drunk, nor a bad father or husband, he gives back to his community and is a gracious entertainer. He is not conceited or rude. The media hates this…
There are some days I wake up and really wonder if our world would be better off the way it was in his most recent movie, sans zombies…..
George, you forget one thing. Will Smith is a Democrat and makes the requisite contributions to the DNC and Democrat fundraisers, publicly bashes George Bush, and will support either Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barrack Hussein Obama in the next election.
Therefore, no matter what asinine statements he makes to the press, all will be forgiven and the American Democrat-Media Complex will shoot the messenger to defend him.
Mel Gibson on the other hand does not campaign for Democrat candidates or make in-kind contributions to their campaigns, therefore he is afforded no such defense.
Gibson did try to redeem himself back in 2006 by bashing Bush in an interview about his Apocolypto flop, but I guess it was too little. If he campaigns for Hillary or Obama and bashes the GOP nominee next year, look for Gibson to be forgiven also.
Larry:
Great piece on the Will Smith smear.
I immediately thought of the out of context quote from John Lennon about The Beatles being more popular than Jesus.
The media of the day took that one sentence and all heck broke loose. It goes to show that nothing has changed in 40 and probably never will.
The word Hitler and good should not appear in any interview ever, no matter what point he/she is trying to make.
Are we really that stupid that we would think Will Smith was advocating Adolf Hitler?? Are people’s brains full of that much air that ANYONE would draw such a stupid conclusion? Mel Gibson was drunk during a traffic stop during his rant as I recall. There is no comparison. Let’s actually use our brains please.
BeatleBoy’s comments would have been fine without the Mel Gibson remark.
How about just ending the paragraph saying “Will Smith is no bigot” ?
Instead, BB tosses that in there uneccesarily.
Otherwise a rare mildly interesting blurb from Beatleboy.
Mel Gibson has since given additional indication that he is anti Semitic. His rant was simply nuts and his apology was fashioned to save his skin. His profile in the press is a result of that. He is radioactive even to mainstream Republicans.
The “MEDIA” is not a single entity. Don’t treat it like it is. Do ALL news organizations, radio station, TV outlets, blog sites, etc act as a single thought unit?
CBS and Fox News – all the same , eh?
Come to think of it….Rush and Hannity are on the CBS outlet here. The same network that gave us Dan Rather. They must be all the same.
Give me a break!
It is unfortunate that ignorant and uneducated people fail to grasp a profound insight. Will Smith is expressing a commonly understood principle going back to Socrates. In order to do good you have to know what the good is. Due to variances in psychological development, moral development, etc. what is personally held as good may not be universally considered so. No one acts as to harm themselves, even when committing suicide, the actor who can no longer tolerate the pain of existence is relieving themselves of agony, which can be a good thing if you can get the pain to stop. Obviously, those left to clean up the mess think otherwise. Hitler was not trying to hurt himself, but, in accordance with his struggle, improve the world, according to his definitions. This is not about moral relativity. This is about how we know what we know. Hitler does not get excused or absolved from his crimes against humanity because we understand his thought processes. We can still have moral repugnance and judge evil for what it is while intellectually being aware of facts. No one acts to deliberately harm themselves even if they in fact do so. Every act is an act of self interest, in some way, even if decided upon a mistaken calculation or a morally debased set of rules. All you have to do is look at babies who soil themselves and children who act against all commonsense until they grow up. When I was a child, I thought as a child, now I know differently.
I think people need to be careful about to what extent they demonize Hitler. People believe he was almost supernaturally evil. Genocide is not rare, and is happening right now. Hitler managed to do it on such a grand scale that makes it seem surreal. But he did not do it alone. Countrymen, neighbors, co-workers, friends and lovers were turned against each other were complicit in the madness and did unspeakable acts of horror and betrayal. It wasn’t just Hitler. He was just a man like the rest of us.
For the average person on the street who can’t understand the cryptic reply from the previous writer, let me break it down:
Will Smith’s comments were taken out of context and they do not prove or disprove that he’s a bigot.
The previous writer is trying to attach a plausible explanation to Hitler’s actions. Lets get it right…Hitler intentionally set out to hurt people of a particular religion, sexual orientation, or affiliation. He knew his acts were evil, unfortunately, he tried to rationalize them just like the previous reply is attempting to do.
Its troubling that people try to sugarcoat, super psychoanalyze or get historical facts twisted. Hitler was what he was–evil. Lets not try to discover yet another “disease” that one can lean on, in order to escape their responsibility.
Golly Larry, when you described Will Smith it sounded like Joe Biden’s assessment of Barak Obama. Didn’t you learn anything from Joe’s faux pas?
That’s why people like yourself should stick to reading news off telepromptors. Maybe you could take over Alycia Lane’s gig while she’s on leave. Now there’s someone who could really read a teleprompter. Va Va Va Voom! I am sad to report though unless you’re thirty years old or less and sexy as all get out, your chances of reading the news on TV are slim. According to every news station I’ve seen, if you’re not gorgeous with a full set of lips you can forget about the news business
Newspapers used to give a pretty good account of what was happening but I stopped getting the Inquirer several years ago. You talk about an axe to grind. The reporting and editorials were so slanted, you had to read the paper standing on your head. We don’t live in the world of Walter Cronkite anymore. Trust is only something we dream about. We are bombbarded with news on all fronts. Everybody has their own slant, motivation or ax to grind. It’s up to the people to ferret out the truth from behind these walls of bias, agendas and misreporting. I am not sure that we are smart enough or have the time to do so. And Larry, I don’t need someone like you explaining an obvious misreporting of Will Smith’s quote. I need someone who will interpret the more subtle and insidious accounts written that pose as “news”.
For the average person on the street who can’t understand the cryptic reply from reply #15, let me break it down:
Will Smith’s comments were taken out of context and they do not prove or disprove that he’s a bigot.
The writer of reply #15 is trying to attach a plausible explanation to Hitler’s actions. Lets get it right…Hitler intentionally set out to hurt people of a particular religion, sexual orientation, or affiliation. He knew his acts were evil, unfortunately, he tried to rationalize them just like the previous reply is attempting to do.
Its troubling that people try to sugarcoat, super psychoanalyze or get historical facts twisted. Hitler was what he was–evil. Lets not try to discover yet another “disease” that one can lean on, in order to escape their responsibility.
If we want to prevent problems from happening again, we need to examine and understand them. We cannot simply dismiss Hitler as one out of control psychotic.
America is sinking into the same mindset as Nazi Germany. After 9-11 we were so focused on securing America that we made some grave mistakes. We threw money at organizations that were not mentally equipped to handle power. We failed to give guidelines. We are seeing the effects of that abuse today with stop and frisk, tasers against pregnant women and throwing kids in jail for fantasizing about getting back at bullies. Any abuse of power is evil, especially when the aggressor abuses the most vulnerable in society. It is time that we started setting controls on behavior.
Larry,is there anyone more Dangerous the rightwing leaning Fox News,they do it on a daily basis pretending to be fair and balanced.(yeah fair and balanced to the rightwing do-gooders).
To Carol Fritz:
The Armenian massacre was a genocide committed by the Turks, who systematically murdered hundreds of thousands of children, women, and men, mostly by sending them on death marches and boxing them up in railcars and shipping them on a trip that they would never survive due to starvation and illness, caused and spread by the abuses that they were subjected to (hmm, sound familiar? Yeah, Germany two decades later who had a ready model for treating the Jews and other “undesirables” and political opponents). For all who are interested in more accurate information than what Ms. Fritz claims to know, see _Black Dog of Fate_ and _The Burning Tigris_ both by Peter Balakian, as a starting point.
Please, Gibson defenders. There’s no comparison between Will Smith’s thoughtful remark, misinterpreted, and anything that has happened to Mel Gibson as a result of his own venom. Gibson has no defense. People say what they really feel when they’re drunk: that’s why there are happy drunks and mean drunks. Gibson carries around a lot of hate and when he was drunk, he spewed. Sign me, twelve years of Hebrew school, Philadelphian, proud of Will Smith.
This is very typical of how the British press approach a story. Having started as just reporters of Fact, when they had to join the modern world of journalism post-Watergate, the only role model the established press in the UK had was the tabloid style of sensationalism. Watch a BBC interview sometime and be amazed at how they will keep asking an interviewee the same question multiple times trying to force the person to give the even something close to the controversial answer that the interviewer was intending for. I’m not surprised that Smith’s answer would be twisted just to get a storyline tabloid style. Even the venerable Times has gone down the tubes with it’s new managers. Each story starts with a sensational headline and 85% of the start of the story tries to further that sensationalist viewpoint. Then the closing 15% sets out the real facts that completely refutes what was said in the headlines and lead of the story. Glad that Will didn’t let them get away with such a cheap trick.
Ed: If you “people like me” should stick to reading a teleprompter, you are sadly mis-informed and are a classic stereotype artist. I’ll take any insult. Disagree. That’s what this is all about. But don’t take aim at my work as a journalist-commentator-author etc.
You need to take a hard look at what you have written.
If you don’t need “someone like me” to provide some input here or there, go elsewhere.
Or maybe call Larry Platt. You seem to like him just as much as me.
Larry, let me know where I can get a hold of Larry Platt. I’d like to ask him
how many phone calls he made to the Reids before they succumbed to his “persuasion”.
You are known in this town as a TV anchor. That’s it, not a journalist not a commentator, especially not an author. An ex TV anchor is your resume as far as a lot of us are concerned. You insult me with the insinuation that I have something against you and Larry Platt, personally. I know two things. You are clueless and Platt will go as far as necessary to get a story. I’ve sat on the side lines long enough. I’m tired of people getting away with their own agenda. A guy like Larry Platt may think his actions go unnoticed but people are watching. Just look at the Reids faces on the cover of the Mag. They’ve been through enough. Yet Larry Platt had them pose to augment his ability to sell more issues.
Hey Larry if you thought I was anti- semetic forget it. I work for a guy who is Jewish and he is a fine American. I used to work for a black guy and he was a great boss too.
Hey, Larry, I guess you’re no investigative reporter, either…otherwise you would be all over the Sandy Burglar story…kinda like you’re in-depth investigation of the interrogation tapes story, no?
Mr. Kane,
You were right to upbraid Ed for his allegation that your were a “news reader” At 45 I’ve been a fan for many years and you are in the John Facenda league of journalist in the Philadelphia market. That said, I am dissapointed that you did not choose to respond to my more substantive allegation that in the defense of “smear journalism” you in fact smeared Mel Gibson for no apparent reason. Your article, without that comment was fine. But it’s those little swips that discredit your genral message. If Ed’s silly critue was worth your repsonse ,I’d respectufully ask you to responde to my claim that you smeared Mel Gibson in a back handed way, and essentially committed the journalism sin that you’ve accused the Scottish journalist of committing.
Thanks and I hope you post a response.
-George
Jerey Joe you’re right. If Larry wanted to prove that he is an investigative reporter he would look into Sandy Bergers actions. The man took secret documents from the government and never really paid the price. 50,000 dollars is hardly the recompense for stealing top government secrets. What did he know and how much does he know is the question.
Ed, we don’t even see the right wing blogs giving as much attention to Berger as you do. OK, Berger is a dirtball. What’s new?
Larry,you where the anchor that started the channel 6 action news dynasty.
Larry, you are right Ed is a “classic stereotype artist” and with his label lobbing,same old song buddies.
Larry has reported from all over Philadelphia, not to mention several places around the country and world. That’s called journalism.
Ed is misguided.
As for Sandy Berger, there are journalists in Washington who can and should investigate him. And some have.