Feb. 23 - Supermarket tabloids employ a flamboyant style of reporting, headline writing and picture editing that can be silly, funny and entertaining.
Sometimes the subject matter doesn't fit the style, but the tabloids plunge ahead anyway as they have done with their coverage of JonBenet Ramsey, the 6-year-old killed in her wealthy family's Boulder home.
They entertain and amuse with outlandish or shocking headlines that often are not supported by the stories, unnamed sources that may or may not exist, doctored or misleading photographs, a kernel or two of truth in a field of fiction, and a disdain for celebrity.
It's all driven by a fierce competition among experienced, top-notch reporters whose aggressiveness earns them some of the highest salaries paid in journalism.
The tabloids are armed with thick checkbooks and the freedom to buy information they can't get any other way.
And they have broken news in the Ramsey case, a story that includes a millionaire father, John Ramsey; a younger beauty-queen mother, Patsy Ramsey; a child victim who starred in kiddie beauty pageants; and a team of investigators some have compared to the Keystone Kops.
Tabloid reporters often beat the mainstream media when they zero in on a story.
Their coverage of the Nicole Brown Simpson murder forced highly regarded national newspapers to quote tabloid stories.
But readers should be aware that tabloids do not approach or display a Ramsey story any differently from the way they do one about Michael Jackson's monkey or the latest twist in Elizabeth Taylor's love life.
Ramsey reports carried in the Feb. 25 editions of the four weeklies, which began arriving at newsstands on Feb. 17, are worth a critical look.
The Enquirer and Globe devote the majority of their covers to the case.
The Examiner and Star carry the story across the top of Page 1.
All four carry pictures of the dead child.
The Globe also features a picture of her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey. The Enquirer includes a small picture of the mother.
Each front page contains the tabloid standard of a shocking headline that promises more than the story will deliver.
The Examiner's three-deck, yellow headline screams: "MYSTERY FOOTPRINT LEADS TO REAL JonBenet KILLER." A smaller headline drives the point home, "Shocking new police evidence."
That headline is repeated above a story on Page 13. It leads with the "news" that insiders say the killer left "telltale footprints that can lead right to his door." The footprints, it says, were found on stairs in the house and outside in the snow.
Writer John Latta then quotes a former Philadelphia detective on how important the prints could be and how police would investigate them. He talks at length on how valuable they could be even if the police don't match them to a pair of shoes.
And that's pretty much it. Like the footprints, the story leads nowhere.
Two pictures of interest run with the story. In one, six shoe prints mar an otherwise pristine snow scene. Under that picture sits one of an officer in a Boulder County Sheriff's car parked in front of the Ramsey house.
A cutline says shoe prints were found outside the home, but it doesn't say the pictured tracks are the ones. Nothing ties the photograph to the crime scene. That's the job of the photograph of the deputy and the house. That picture, however, shows a snow-free lawn.
The Enquirer's front page states: "COPS: MOM CONFESSES 'IT'S MY FAULT,' " "BEAUTY QUEEN murder bombshell" and "PLUS: 10-year-old brother's torment." Inside, it shouts: "BEAUTY QUEEN'S MOM CONFESSES: IT'S MY FAULT!" But the first two paragraphs turn the volume way down: " 'It's my fault . God, it's all my fault."
"With that anguished cry, grieving mother Patsy Ramsey confessed to shocked friends that she blames herself for the death of her beloved beauty pageant princess, JonBenet."
A police source, the story says, told the Enquirer that police knew about Mrs. Ramsey's "confessions.'' It goes on to quote "a close friend," "a source close to her" and "a family friend." These unnamed sources in turn provide direct quotes from the mother's mouth, the Enquirer claims.
But some of her quotes sound suspect.
For example: " 'When I dressed her in those lovely costumes and let her learn to dance and sing, was I making her a target for the pervert who killed her?' "
Would a grief-stricken, guilt-ridden mother really say "those lovely costumes" if she believed those clothes contributed to her daughter's brutal death?
Also, the Enquirer brags it was the first to report that the dead girl had been a chronic bed-wetter. That "fact" is addressed by the article's one named source: Judianne Densen-Gerber, who is identified only as a forensic psychiatrist. She discusses signs that sexual abuse is occurring.
"Even bed-wetting can be a sign," she says.
Note the use of "can be." That's not enough even for a supermarket tabloid, so the Enquirer trots out an unidentified family friend who says, "(Mrs. Ramsey) always worried about JonBenet's bed-wetting problem. And she (Mrs. Ramsey) was horrified to learn after her death that it's one of the classic signs of an abused child!"
A possible sign has become a classic one, and there's still no confirmation from a reliable source.
The Star's headline reads: "JONBENET MOM SOBS: I'LL TELL ALL TO COPS." The inside headline leaves off "TO COPS." While its story quotes an unnamed insider and source, the Star presents a fairly straightforward article about the standoff between the Ramseys and police over where a formal interview will take place.
It offers a direct quote from Mrs. Ramsey: " 'I'll tell you what I know but don't make me come downtown.' " But then the reporters signal their uncertainty about whether she said it by adding, "she reportedly said."
The story also reports the arrest of family friend Jay Elowsky in a baseball-bat attack on a television crew staking out his home where the family was staying.
It quotes Boulder Mayor Leslie Durgin talking about her frustration at the Ramseys' refusal to submit to police questioning.
Accompanying the story is a grainy picture of Mrs. Ramsey and a man identified only as a bodyguard.
The picture was shot through a car's windshield.
The Star gives the case two full pages, with sidebars about "Strange case of dog who was banished from little girl's room" and "4 QUESTIONS THE COPS NEED ANSWERED." A picture of the dog runs with one story. Also, the Star displays three pictures taken of a pensive JonBenet in July at a beauty pageant. The cutline says people - no names used - at the pageant "now realize there was a dark edge to that day. "It's as if she had an eerie premonition something awful lay ahead,' says a witness."
The Globe's front trumpets: "I WON'T TURN IN JONBENET'S DAD! He's innocent, says mom as cops turn up heat."
It also carries a picture of the Ramseys walking together. A red tag claims "Photo Exclusive." Another headline mocks them: "GOTCHA! PARENTS COME OUT OF HIDING." "JonBenet's MOM STANDS BY HER MAN," reads the headline over the story.
The lead says "The defiant mom of slain JonBenet Ramsey has refused to crack in the face of relentless pressure by lawmen who want to finger her hubby for the murder of their precious little daughter, sources reveal." In the next graph, insiders say police "are playing torturous mind games with Patsy Ramsey .
