Here’s how it ends:
Luke and Leia are twins!
The bad guy is his father! And the cute little kid grows up to be ...
Rosebud is his sled! (AND a Horcrux.)
Uncle Vernon wakes up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette and says, “Honey, you won’t believe the dream I just had ....”
But seriously. I’m not going to post anything to give away the ending of Book 7. For one thing, I don’t know what happens, and I’m not going looking. As you probably know, some people have posted online supposed pages that have been photographed – which may or may not be authentic. Here’s a link to an article about that.
It will spoil the fun for me if I know in advance. (But as many of you have noticed, I figure anything that happened in Book 6 or previous books is fair game. After all, it’s been two years since HBP.)
Two of the biggest Potter fan sites, MuggleNet.com and The Leaky Cauldron swear they’re not going to post any spoilers and will try to make life miserable for anyone who does.
But is it news?
Believe it or not, newspaper journalists take ethical issues seriously. So here’s an ethical question:
If J.K. Rowling has killed off Harry Potter in “Deathly Hallows,” is that news? And if so, should newspapers report it on Saturday, July 21? Or should they withhold the information from their readers (who are surely hearing it on TV and radio) because it will spoil the book for the huge majority of interested people who won’t have had time to read 784 pages between midnight and when the newspaper arrives?
It’s even been a topic of discussion at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank in St. Petersburg, Fla. Here’s a link to audio of an interview between Poynter’s Al Tompkins, who specializes in online and broadcast issues, and the institute’s Bob Steele, who teaches ethics issues.
Now, what newspapers decide to do and what Fox News or WBT radio or CNN decide to do often are entirely different. You think of it as “the media,” but we who work in it know that we make all kinds of decisions, and other news outlets make other decisions.
What should the Observer and Charlotte.com do, if the news gets out about how the story ends?
Jeri Fisher Krentz, the Observer’s book editor, told me Tuesday that in the book review the Observer will publish Saturday, she’ll edit out anything giving away the plot.
But what about a day later? Two days later? How long before the newspaper should reveal details?
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Is it a spoiler or is it news?
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9 comments:
The ending of a book is not news! I have already decided that I will have to shut myself off from TV and radio until I finish the book after getting it Saturday. If people want to know what happens, then they need to go and read the book. I really hope that news sources do not reveal the ending of the book. If they do, it would be an awful thing and would just be plain mean!
I have been re-reading Order so I can see the movie on Sunday morning (hopefully less kids). I will then re-read HBP and hopefully my DH book will have arrived from Amazon by then. I am going to have to, like Ashley, completely cut myself off from the internet, TV and radio until I can finish the book. I really hope that no one out there spoils it, but I know people will try to. Thanks for this blog, has been a great read for an adult HP fan!!
This is easily the funniest thing I've witnessed in almost six decades. . .
Is it news? How would you define news?
Certainly it is 'news', if only because so many people will read the book and have been so interested. But why report it, in any media?
If I cared, I would do something similar to Redheadgo and Ashley.
Actually, it would seem the publication and availability of the book would be news, not the story itself.
As your book editor said, edit out plot giveaways.
For the anon finding the discussions humorous, I can see the point, but not everyone, as has been shown by Mary's recent blogs, is interested in discussing light rail and other issues of local politics.
In deference to all parties, I suggest Mary run two or three lines of blogs simultaneously. Some for the H. Potter type people, some for politicos etc, and perhaps some other line.
Lewis
It appears that several other papers, including the Sun and the Times, have beaten the Observer to the punch. While these reviews have included major plot details, they're more like teasers than spoilers. Kudos to the Times and the Baltimore Sun for being able to toe the line (and for somehow getting copies of these books through legal means). This brings up another ethical question: When should a paper print the review of a book, especially a book as shrouded in secrecy as the Potter series?
I certainly won't be reading any reviews until I'm done with the book. But to a point the outcome of the story is news, just because so many people read the books and wonder. It's news, however, that everyone wants to learn about on their own time. Give it at least a week with absolutely no printed spoilers and then warn about them for a while longer.
And, personally, I doubt that any newspaper that has already run a review acquired the book completely ethically. Just about everyone knows that the book isn't going to be released until Saturday and, with this degree of (necessary) secrecy, there won't be early copies given out by the publisher.
Mary will keep talking about Potter because Tara Servatius just unearthed a Ton Tober email that used her blog post about the biased UNCC study.
Read that again: GovCo is using her blog posts to further the pro-tax, pro-light-rail line agenda.
Nothing wrong with that, right???
Just keep changing the subject and will ignore how this affects your credibility, Mary. As you are fond of saying...'What are you smkoing'?
Who thinks that Mary wrote yesterdays editorial?
Lewis, of course everyone isn't interested in Charlotte development issues. But Mary Newsom is not some sillly pop culture columnist: she is the O's writer about things urban in Charlotte. What's next, Sorenson doing a womens fashion blog? No, of course not.
What's funny here is that it is so bloody transparent.
The whole thing, of course, is pretty much over Saturday when the book is released.
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