First of all, does anyone know what a ‘puff piece’ is? It’s a piece of journalistic trash that doesn’t afford any chance for an opposing viewpoint while focusing intently on praising the subject of the interview. You know, something the current POTUS would like to see but probably won’t because of ‘fake news’. Sorry, had to get that one in. But really a puff piece is all praise and no substance. Journalists are taught early on to always do their research and go as far into it as they can. Without any depth a journalistic review or article is worth absolutely nothing.
Rainn Wilson didn’t play a huge part in Almost Famous but his scenes were enough to introduce the ‘puff piece’ line and make it known that good journalism is known for being about more than building up a subject. You don’t need to necessarily tear a person or the subject of your article down, but you do need to offer some sort of differing viewpoint. The yin and the yang so to speak.
Without those opposing viewpoints then the news becomes just a giant mess of flattery or a deliberate attack on the subject that isn’t warranted. Even if that subject deserves every last bit of vitriol or criticism that’s launched their way it’s necessary to explain why or at least give a reason how this turn of events came to be. Being judicious in an article is a good way to avoid any serious bias, and gaining as much information as possible is key to making sure that you don’t leave any gaping holes in your story.
This is especially important for reporters and columnists that work for professional magazines or websites. If you decide to cite something or someone in an article and your information is off or incomplete the chances are you won’t be writing for that place much longer. If you’re a freelancer there’s a good chance that you won’t be getting many more jobs from that outfit or any other since a lot of them tend to talk to one another.
Seeing as how Rolling Stone was the magazine featured in the film and that’s where the material was going the reporter in question should have known better. Don’t get it twisted though, Rolling Stone and many other magazines have most definitely published puff pieces in the past for those celebrities that they believe are worth it. The trendy are almost always given at least a few articles throughout many publications that will pump them up and give them an inflated sense of self-esteem because their publication believes that much in the subject.
That’s not acceptable and it’s not fair to the subject or to those that helped get them to where they are. Puff pieces don’t help anyone except the occasional writer that manages to get one past the editor. It’s like a fairy tale that doesn’t get fully checked for content and is allowed to run simply because it has no grammar or syntax errors. Rainn Wilson is right to look disgusted in this pic because quite honestly a puff piece is as close to a lie as you can get.
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