There has long been a strain between white-run media outlets and Black culture. This was seen in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s with the way that hip-hop was reported on. One archival article titled “The Rap on Rap Music” by the Los Angeles Times suggested that hip-hop promoted violence in southern California for the sake of entertainment. Musical acts like N.W.A. fought against such beliefs, maintaining that their records were meant to educate on real-life situations while calling out social injustice. While this example of poor reporting on Black culture is a bit extreme, there has continuously been a long pattern of outright lies, which has led to retractions in some cases, though the damage was already done.
Lil Wayne’s allegedly on his deathbed
In 2013, TMZ reported that Lil Wayne was on his deathbed and was being prepared for his transition. The outlet claimed Weezy had suffered seizures that left him in a coma and on life support, with the family saying their final goodbyes. Thankfully, Lil Wayne himself tweeted out, “I’m good everybody. Thx for the prayers and love.” It’s still unknown how TMZ came to this conclusion.
Michael Jackson’s daughter alleged suicide attempt over the “Leaving Neverland” documentary
TMZ incorrectly reported in March 2019 that Paris Jackson, daughter of Michael Jackson was fighting for her life. The outlet claimed she tried to commit suicide and was hospitalized after MJ’s sexual assault accusers sat for the documentary and claimed the singer abused them. TMZ stated the salacious stories about her father pushed Paris over the edge. Paris quickly cleared up this rumor with a tweet, writing, “F*** you, you f***ing liars” to the outlet.
Gladys Knight allegedly had pancreatic cancer
During Aretha Franklin’s 2018 funeral, singer Gladys Knight shared during a speech that she and Franklin spoke about their similar health battles. Knight stated she and her friend “had the same disease,” leaving outlets to run with a story that the “Neither One Of Us” vocalist also had pancreatic cancer, which is what Franklin passed away from. Many platforms ran with the narrative without reaching out to Knight for clarification. After the media storm, Knight cleared up her comments and revealed that she once had and beat stage one breast cancer, which she’d confided in Franklin about. This caused several outlets to issue a retraction.
Janet Jackson accused of slapping niece, Paris Jackson
In August 2012, TMZ claimed that singer Janet Jackson lashed out at her niece, Paris Jackson. They reported that Janet called her brother’s daughter “spoiled little bh” and slapped her. The story was incredibly nasty, yet TMZ still ran with it and was forced to remove it and issue an apology after being slammed by Janet’s team, who called the article an outright lie.
