Cut the wisecracking.

• Author: Saltzman, Joe
• Position: WORDS IMAGES - Berating celebraties

IT IS NOTHING NEW, but it still is mean and unfair--the gratuitous reference to a person who has nothing to do with the story or the disparaging aside to the audience about the person in the story. These practices are part and parcel of the journalist's arrogance and preoccupation with trying to be a clever, witty, all-knowing insider. It is the equivalent of a wink, an inside joke at someone else's expense. We all are familiar with the game--it starts in grammar school and continues into the office. It involves gossip and the opportunity to bring down someone who seems to have it all: beauty, power, influence....

When done in private, it may be embarrassing or silly or inappropriate. Yet, when it occurs in print or on television, it becomes more than mean and juvenile--it labels an individual and influences how we think about that person. When performed as a parody on "The Daily Show" or "Saturday Night Live," it is devastating and often funny, but taken in the spirit of satire and free speech. When it is executed on the pages of a major news magazine, it is inexcusable--and just poor journalism.

Celebrities usually held up to scorn and ridicule include personalities as diverse as Ben Affleck, Britney Spears, and Jerry Lewis. This is the way it is done--throwing in some celebrity for comic effect who has nothing to do with the story. An article on TV reality shows doing good deeds: "... It's good to see TV using its resources for an act of charity other than giving Jenny McCarthy a sitcom." Call McCarthy an inno-cent bystander.

All Bruce Willis did was accept an honor from the French government. Newsweek put it this way: "'It could have been worse. The French government could have celebrated the artistry of Ashton Kutcher. Still, even in a country enamored [with] Jerry Lewis, it's hard to fathom why 'Hudson Hawk' star Bruce Willis deserved to be an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters.... Maybe the next honor should [go to] Jean-Claude Van Damme?" That item not only ridiculed Willis, but also mocked Kutcher, Lewis, and Van Damme, three celebrities who had nothing whatsoever to do with the story.

Newsweek magazine's coverage of Martha Stewart before she was accused of any crime and during her trial and its aftermath is a case study in biased, mean-spirited reporting of a major celebrity. The magazine took a relatively benign case of greed and scandal--compared to the many examples of major corporate management offenders--and blew it...