A London court awarded actor Will Smith unspecified damages and an apology from entertainment newswire service, WENN (World Entertainment News Network) for a false quote the company released on its service, titled “Smith: Hitler was a good person.”
From AOL News:
The Oscar-nominated star, one of the world’s most popular and highly paid actors, was left deeply distressed and acutely embarrassed over the wrong story published by an entertainment newswire service, the High Court heard.
Smith’s comments, originally published in the Scottish Daily Record newspaper, were then “wholly misrepresented” by the London-based World Entertainment News Network (WENN), Judge David Eady was told.
The agency, which says on its website that it provides information to more than 1,000 media outlets in 25 countries, picked up the interview and then wrongly published worldwide a story headlined “Smith: Hitler was a good person.”
“The article alleged (Smith) had declared in an interview that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was a good person,” Smith’s lawyer Rachel Atkins told the court.
“It wholly misrepresents (his) actual words.”
She said Smith, also a Grammy-winning rapper who was not in court, actually thought Hitler was “vile and heinous.”
WENN retracted the story after Smith’s camp pointed out the erroneous statement, but the apology was not picked up by media and therefore the statement, like Smith, was left blowing in the breeze.
This is the kind of thing which really pisses me off. Celeb news should strive to a higher standard of journalism than is currently being passed off as acceptable. While you can never be 100% sure of the validity of tabloid stories, our general rule of thumb is to check for various sources of the same information. Where you get your news is important too. Credibility should be important to all news outlets.
Now, if only we could get Will to detract all those pro-Scientology statements he’s made to the press he might stand a chance of being our Fresh Prince all over again.
[Editor’s note: I really like Will Smith, and I will take it as a personal affront if he becomes affiliated as a member of Scientology. This will not only destroy his career, but also his credibility. Will, seriously, I plead with you, don’t do it man. Look what they did to Tom.)
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