This whole Jennifer Hawkins nude cover story has been another media-concocted non-story. But I will give it some kudos: it influenced Australian celebrity dialogue for a week, and it shows that Murdochs still have some sway over public opinion.
We knew about it at Lucire, and thought: OK, a radio presenter doesn’t like the cover and got quoted in an Australian newspaper supplement. It’s a fair opinion, had it been for body image, and thought that was it. Let’s wait to hear from the other side.
The story, however, ran and ran, in various media outlets in Australia, reporting only the one side.
It was only on the 7th that a holidaying Jennifer Hawkins broke her silence and said that the photographs’ real purpose (remember, we were still to hear about this, despite the four days’ speculation being reported as fact) was about promoting a healthy lifestyle.
It was never about being the poster girl for body image.
It could have been nice to have done a bit of research over the photos’ purpose.
Next thing, the sensationalism continued, with another Murdoch Press report over Hawkins being ‘dumped’ from the cover of Australian Woman’s Day.
If the dumping is true and not another sensationalized story, it seems to show that Woman’s Day is not particularly good at standing their ground, and is easily swayed by what was a “nothing” story. But read on: there is no comment from Woman’s Day to say that Hawkins was actually dumped.
I wouldn’t be surprised if, in fact, it was just a regular editorial decision than an actual “dumping”.
Maybe Woman’s Day simply didn’t want to go out with another Jennifer Hawkins cover while Marie Claire Australia had its one.
It reminds me of an earlier (2007) Australian media gaffe about Miranda Kerr, which was also run as fact in Murdoch Press newspapers, Channel 9 and other media outlets.
The problem is that they got the location (New York, not Los Angeles), year (2005, not 2007) and fashion label (Heatherette, not Victoria’s Secret) wrong.
Other than that, I believe they got their facts right.
Only one Australian media outlet actually got that story right: Sassybella. The internet beat the supposedly superior infrastructure of old media.