New topic
PrintableBartVanHemelen said: chickengrease said: I just finished the book and I must say it is an interesting read. Prince has so many gag orders against those who were close to him, that I'm sure many of those "reliable sources" could still face legal action for speaking on occurances that happened 20 years ago. [...] I fault the author with the constant "One source says..." or "according to a very reliable source" in the book. He doesn't gain very much credibility for that.
Look, I'm gonna explain something: sometimes journalists come accross something that they know is probably true, but that can't be verified because the other sources ain't talking. And sometimes they do talk -- but off the record. Then you face a dilemma: are you gonna print this, or are you gonna keep it to yourself. Without having read the book (apparently amazon.co.uk hasn't received it yet), I'd guess that some of those "rumors" are in fact stories that are probably, very likely true, but no oen is willign to come forward and put his ass on the line. A good example is the "Larry & Prince vs. Wendy & Lisa" thing. It is phrased in such a way that Prince can't really blame someone or sue someone over it, but that doesn't make it any less true. I'm simply guessing here, but I know that if I was told something as outrageous as that, I wouldn't hold it back but I would look for a way to report on it without getting anyone in trouble, especially not the sources. The unfortunate result of this is that you end up with stories with a lot of words in them that can be used to dismiss the story as "rumors" or worse. I've seen this many times: that tabloid-like stories that were once dismissed as outright lies turned out to be pretty close to the truth. I know journalism quite well, and I believe I kinda sorta addressed that no one was willing to put him on the line more than likely because Prince placed contracts with many an employee and bandmate restricting them from doing so. But Hahn isn't writing a National Enquirer story here which people pay $2 bucks for. This is supposed to be a detailed account of a person's life. And information that begins with "A close source says..." will not suffice as a solid reference. Personally, I think whoever the source was is probably being truthful. But while people are paying anywhere between $20 to $30, Hahn should have either revealed the source or left the info out so folks don't feel like their paying for tabloid. However, to me, it's still an interesting read. | |
- E-mail - orgNote -  Report post to moderator |