It’s only fair, after all, what with this NME article, Jack White brands journalists lazy.
In the short piece – which is undoubtedly part of a longer rant, but you know me: as a journalist, I can’t be bothered to confirm that – White declared, “Journalists are inherently the laziest people on earth. Even in the age of Google, they don’t do any work to check what they’re writing about. I’d say 90 per cent of what they get is from the press release. We have fun putting things in there – like in the press release for ‘Elephant’, somebody inserted a joke about how none of our studio equipment was made after 1963. Before you knew it, people thought we wouldn’t touch a piece of equipment unless it’s 60 years old or something! It gets to the point where you’re answering questions based on a joke somebody made.”
Okay, first off, if I’m putting together a piece and it falls to me to provide a fact or figure, then I absolutely confirm its accuracy before I place it within whatever I’m writing. Honestly, who wouldn’t? White’s right about one thing, at least: in the age of Google, where just about any answer is available at your fingertips within mere seconds, there’s absolutely no reason not to check your facts.
But, see, here’s the inherent problem with White’s jackarsery: why in the hell would a journalist Google something from a press release?
Dude, your band put the fucking thing out! I mean, I write press releases and bios for bands all the time, and I would never knowingly and willfully put a fake bit of information into either one of them. Why? Because there’s a very reasonable presumption that you’re going to include accurate information in those things!
Similarly, while I know bands love to just make shit up to fuck with the writers that bore or irritate them, there’s no reason for most writers to presume that the person they’re interviewing is going to give them a statement about themselves that needs to be fact-checked. One of my first-ever interview was with Sean Kelly, lead singer of The Samples, and he fed me eight kinds of shit about the various between-album hobbies of his bandmates, offering claims that one of them followed ornithological pursuits, while another made mirrors in his spare time…and me being a squeaky-clean young intern, I ate it up like it was ambrosia, running his comments intact in the piece.
Ouch.
Now, mind you, years later, I ended up writing The Samples’ official bio, and a not-very-chagrined Kelly apologized with a laugh, saying it was all in good-natured fun…and I was cool with that.
This, however, isn’t cool at all.
This is Jack White, one of the biggest alt-rock figures of the 21st century, basically telling the journalists who’ve praised their work for the last several years, “We put a bunch of bullshit in our press releases, and if you accept it at face value, then you’re a lazy dumb-ass.”
Actually, I’m pretty sure Jack White’s the only real dumb-ass in this situation. I mean, clearly, the journalists he’s just railed against will be extracting their revenge in the pages of their respective publications. Of course, I’m sure he’s of the belief that it won’t matter, and that the fans will still keep buying White Stripes albums as much as they always did…and, even worse, he’s probably right.
But that doesn’t make him any less of a dumb-ass.
