Sunday Feature: Racism in Celebrity Tabloids?

The wedding of Jay-Z and Beyonce was probably the most talked-about event of the year so far. Everyone wanted to know, were they or weren't they?

Everyone except the celebrity magazines apparently.

Save for People Magazine and US Weekly, the celeb rags including OK! pushed the megastar wedding to the sidebar, deciding to report about other celebrities including Britney and Jennifer Aniston's relationship with Orlando Bloom.

You would think that the tabloids would go crazy about this, filling the magazine with every down-to-the-minute detail about the not-so-secret nuptials. I was expecting at least 4 covers about the wedding. Instead, most of the magazines would rather reheat old news or overanalyze a couple's friendship instead of write about Beyonce's big day.

It begs the question, why?

A tabloid editor speaking to the New York Daily News sums up the answer rather bluntly: "African-Americans don't sell covers." According to the New York newspaper, which heavily reported about the wedding, another reason why Beyonce and Jay-Z didn't receive top billing is because of the lack of photos of the event. Speaking to another insider, they report that "none of the magazines landed an exclusive on wedding pictures, which would have made the story bigger". Even still, another tabloid editor revealed that "Eva Longoria can get $1 million for wedding photos, but without the expectation of cover sales, Beyoncé might have gotten as little as $250,000 if she had sold hers".

It really is unsettling that racism could still exist in such a large form of media. Beyonce is easily one of the biggest pop stars on the globe, and if even she can't generate more than a cover, what does that say about the journalism media as a whole?

Another argument is that the Beyonce/Jay-Z nuptials were left alone on purpose; obviously they didn't want anyone to know, so the tabloids respected that wish.

Then again, this is the same media who developed the infamous "Wacko Jacko" moniker for embattled Michael Jackson and hired photographers that chased Princess Diana to her death.

The media has never been known for being nice or considerate to its famous subjects; apparently they aren't equal either. 

Note: Mediatakeout.com contributed to the creation of this post.