by Fred Topel
“I use The Weekly World News to teach my son how to read.”
– Errol Morris
For some reason I expected Errol Morris to be a really serious documentarian trying to blow the lid off a scandal. Instead he was happy and smiling and laughing. He even made a joke that my two digital records (one for backup) were brother and sister. Morris has explored topics like police corruption in The Thin Blue Line and Abu Ghraib in SOP. His latest film, Tabloid tells a story we may not know, with a theme that still resonates today.
Joyce McKinney caused a scandal in the ‘70s when she allegedly kidnapped Kirk Anderson from the Mormon Church. At the time, the London tabloids either glorified her as a beautiful heroine or slammed her as a sexual predator. Today it takes far simpler scandals to make someone a tabloid star. For the film, Morris conducted an interview with McKinney and some of the other men who knew her, helped her or tried to stop her. The story unfolds in their own words, with a few on screen images for emphasis.
I spoke with Morris about today’s media, tabloid or otherwise.
Read our exclusive interview with Errol Morris on SuicideGirls.com.
