There are times when I find it more difficult than others to process hard news, such as the loss in Beslan.
All the knowledge available doesn’t sooth even the most hardened news junkie.

At times like this, I find it wise to divert, and a tempest in a teacup can do a fair bit to shake off despair, grief, anger and the sense of being overwhelmed.

Group behaviour facinates me. And fans are no exception. One of the most successful fan blogs I’ve seen is New Zealand Idolblog. They have received considerable national attention because of previous flack from various corporate people, and because they put their readers first. I enjoy heading over and reading all the tidbits and what the fans say.

The Idol series are business, pure and simple. They are successful because they appeal to our wildest dreams. We see unknowns thrown into the show biz pool and they are expected to sink, swim or get out. And the media keeps up the buzz. Fans and contestants alike learn that the media is not a friend.
Newspapers compete with radio and television.
The key word is compete.
The bottom line is money.

Just like the last American Idol, New Zealand runner up Micheal Murphy is on a career track and released his first single.
Cool.
And a loyal reader at Idolblog pointed out the single wasn’t an orginal.
And Murphy’s manager lost it. Publically. In the New Zealand Herald.

The newspaper handled this just fine. It’s buzz. It sells. And they kept the tempest within quotes and context. Ellis went after the fan:

“We chose the song on its merits and whether it had been released before or not we always loved the song.”

He described the story as a “storm in a teacup” and said the person responsible for revealing the song as a cover was “a person who commits fraud everyday by downloading songs [off the internet]“.

“This guy Robyn obviously went to Kazaa or LimeWire purposely to download the song.”

Well. Hello.
Mr. Ellis. This is a fan. You are a pro. Tacky, tacky, tacky.
Murphy is a new kid on the block and this is tough stuff for any up and comer.
Why make it tougher?

Idolblog set the record straight and fans responded.
Robyn is understandably hurt, she did not deserve to be slandered.

New Zealand bloggers have noticed. Good on them.
Mr. Ellis needs to protect, manage and defend his star.
But not at the expense of a fan who did nothing other than google information.

And the New Zealand Herald was happy to give him enough rope to hang himself. It sells papers and it sells CD’s and it helps the singer and his fans. Now, if manager Ellis is the pro he thinks he is, he’ll apologize. It will blow over faster and everyone can get on about their business. Tea, anyone?

(A tidy summary of the the Idol teacup storm can be found here for those of us outside the ‘know.’)