Gossip

I have never understood how Cindy Adams became famous in her own right. She is a leech, an egomaniac, quite possibly a sociopath. I have lived in the NYC area almost my entire life, so I have seen her quite a lot on TV and occasionally read her over the years in the Post. She must have slept with the right guys, I guess, because talent is one thing she lacks.

She also seems to have a deep affinity for fascists. Sukarno, Marcos, The Former Guy - the worse a man is, the more she adores him because he has power. So she was married to that two-bit Catskill comic Joey Adams. Big deal.

Now, does that mean her story is completely without interest? No. But seeing her dowager Park Avenue co-op replete with odes to herself plastered on every wall and ceiling is just vile. She self-validates more than anyone else in the newspaper business, to be sure. She has learned nothing in her 91 years on this planet except the art of self-promotion. I am sure she is a very lonely woman.

"Gossip" (2021 release; 4 episodes of about 50 min each) is a new documentary mini-series that looks at the big business ticket item that are the gossip columns in New York newspapers. As Episode 1 opens, we are introduced to Cindy Adams, the legendary gossip columnist from the New York Post who, now age 90, is still going at it. We then go back in time to the mid-70s when a then-unknown Australian media mogul named Robert Murdoch bought the struggling New York Post, which he promptly shakes up with the eventual introduction of the page Six gossip column... At this point we are 10 min into Episode 1 of "Gossip".

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from longtime producer-director Jenny Carchman, whose previous work includes, among many others, the acclaimed series "The Fourth Estate". Here she takes a look at the origins and rise of the gossip column in the New York newspapers. Carchman takes Cindy Adams' life story as the basis for the series. Let me state upfront that (i) I don't live in New York, and (ii) I had never heard of Cindy Adams before in my life. Turns out she had quite the life, finding herself in the circles of higher society at a young age, and then never looked back and built a career out of it, regardless of whether it was politically correct (building friendships with the Shah of Iran and with Imelda Marcos, among many other controversial if not detested public figures). But the series is of course also a look at New York City, from the dark days in the 1970s to its rise in the 80s and 90s. I find it all quite amusing. Besides Cindy Adams, many other talking heads from the New York scene provide their insights. This is nothing like Carchman's hard-hitting series "The Fourth Estate". Instead it is a light-hearted look at the cold, competitive (not to mention lucrative) business that is the gossip column.

"Gossip" premiered recently on Showtime, and I binge-watched it on SHO On Demand just the other night. I can't really call this must-see TV but on the other hand I certainly didn't mind spending the time to watch this. If you are in the mood for an inside look at the origins and rise of gossip columns in New York that is light-hearted yet entertaining, I'd encourage you to check this out, be it on Showtime On Demand, on Amazon Instant Video and other streaming platforms, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

Well this just confirms the individuals we can blame for the dumbing down of the human race. Only people who crave attention pacify themselves with gossip. This show is just another attempt to fan the fire of these narcissistic 'people'. Cindy Adams represents trash and should be ashamed.

I realize this Cindy person has been around for years. Sycophants think she's some kind of "legend" because she wrote a gossip column. Tough work it is talking smack about people you don't know.

What shines through in this documentary is how self-absorbed, self-important and narcissistic this old broad is/was.

I could writ for hours about what kind of person she "seems" to be, and likely is. But. . .

The REAL issue? Is that this Cretan and others like her, have somehow made people think that what she does is important, entertaining, necessary. I'm ashamed for those that read and promote that garbage. Fun for the feeble minded.

She got super rich doing this while millions of people that work 1,000 harder doing work that is 1,000 more important can barely pay their rent.

Shame.

For those who 'hate' Gossip, this documentary is undoubtedly a stomach-turner for the viewer. I stumbled onto this by accident, and at first, I didn't want to watch a Documentary on 'Gossip' of all things. Still, I thought I'd give this one a few minutes of my time since I like Documentaries.

Well, at first, I was right. In this documentary, all the Kings and Queens of the Gossip hornet's nest are exposed, and like most people, I am not fond of any of them, what they do, how they Gossip. But before I was about to this off, it started to get into some background territory of which I knew little.

"Gossip" is a four-part documentary series. It's best to watch the four episodes.

What you will find out is that the Gossip Queen Bee of THIS series is the 90-year-old Cindy Adams, who goes over her 'career,' how SHE got her "stories." I write "stories" -- because one needs to keep in mind what the documentary is trying to get across IMO. That is the line between a legitimate story and Gossip is at what is being examined. Cindy's Gossip stories, she claims, are as a New Yorker who writes about "New York," but in this, you will find that she took that and reached far beyond with her "friends" she had no real conscious in spreading their "gossip."

What is important too in this documentary is who takes and prints this work -- and why. Why does it need to be out there in the American media? That's where Rupert Murdoch, the Australian Gossip peddler, steps in. He buys media. Lots of media. American Media -- as he eventually faces a lot of lawsuits in the UK for his methods. So come to America and do it the documentary spells out.

Newspapers, TV, Cable...streaming. You begin to see who REALLY controls what and how all other pieces of so-called legitimate media TAKES from the Gossip and makes it a "story." Or connects with these folks as "sources" - these gossip mongrels are now giving stories to legitimate "sources." Murdoch gets to sell his media, influences traditional journalism, and gets richer to buy more!!! Americans get information that is muddled, rumored, conspiracy theorized, sob stories printed from ruthless dictators, etc.

What will get your attention is how FAMILIAR this begins to sound.

One will find just how HIGH the percentage of media Murdoch owns and has been feeding into the American audiences for 50...yes, FIVE evident decades.

Having not even been an American citizen, Murdoch gets those in the American government's highest echelons to do his bidding. He had Former President Reagan speed up HIS American citizenship so he could continue to BUY American media.

The documentary isn't about FOX Cable News...yet, nor an attempt to bash it or anything referenced within. 'Gossip' tells you how we got to where we are TODAY and how FOX Cable News continues to exist. It's been programmed into our minds for over five decades. And how these very same players - are STILL playing all of us with "gossip."

"Gossip" makes us put a mirror up to ourselves - do we like news, or do we want the sensationalism of it? Is there smoke in Gossip that leads to news fire? Or is Gossip used as a revenge weapon? The documentary shows up how all this can work.

The sensationalism of Gossip, whether it's a Cindy Adams to a Maury Povich and beyond to today's news HOSTS -- we have all seen it and been captured by it. In this documentary, we get to know how those loyal/favorites to Murdoch from The Post newspaper (ahem, until the competition starts to entrench on his moneymakers!) move to shows like "A Current Affair."

All the players went onto 20th Century FOX programming or THEIR SHOWS, of which Rupert has pieces. Come on, we see how this goes, and it's STILL going on the same. It gives us knowledge that FOX News's best hosts have successfully merged Gossip and government. Rupert's business model - continued cha-ching to him and the further destruction of people NOT knowing the difference between Gossip and news.

We may NOT have paid attention to how the stories got put out there, how the White Houses and their staff helped spread this and make Gossip now legitimate news. Is it terrible? Disgusting? How about smoke before a fire?

Or is it horrible people who make money off of other awful people? Should we let it exist as entertainment or accept it as 100% accurate? The Gossip documentary hops on that point several times. The documentary explains how many of these Gossip columnists tell you their key to spreading their information without not getting sued. They rely heavily on words like "maybe," "alleged," etc., to get away with putting out what can almost be - a lie - a conspiracy theory, etc. It's a sprinkle of possible information that's, in its core, possible opinion. It's an exciting thing to think about.

The documentary brings up a lot of questions and is meant to do so. Have we shrugged all this off because we all know better -- while they still work and convinced others that their Gossip is REAL, and now we cannot convince them of any difference? Are there any real journalists in the world anymore, or is the Murdoch model how we accept news?

You decide. This documentary gives an inside seat at what has been fed for over 50 years - that's half a century. Agree or don't agree, it's Gossip. It is curious, seeing the same names/players in Gossip that were five decades ago. Controlling what you get, performing the same shady tactics -- you now begin to rethink it all.

Gossip, the documentary IS worth a look. A hard one. And afterward, maybe a significant conversation of changes needed to identifying Gossip 100% from everything else that needs to happen.