"Inside Baseball"

Occasionally here at Writing The World, I point out how misleading a magazine headline can be. For example, People frequently writes headlines that sound as if they've interviewed the subject, when in fact they're just cribbing together quotes from "sources" and "insiders."

Now the New York Daily News has some info about how the current cover story, featuring two of the Duggar sisters, came about. Yes, the headline, "ONLY IN People / THE DUGGARS NOW / LIFE AFTER SCANDAL" implies an exclusive interview, but No, there wasn't one. The Daily News explains, using the term "write-around":

The scandal-scarred Duggar family graces the latest cover of People magazine with the headline “Only in People: The Duggars now, life after scandal.” There’s just one problem — the family refused to speak directly to the magazine to avoid being asked about Josh Duggar’s molestation confession, a source close to the magazine tells Confidenti@l.

“They did not want to discuss the scandal, only the future of the family. They wanted to avoid it altogether, which is completely ridiculous,” says our source. “How can they do a cover story and not address the issue at hand?”

We’re told People, which has had a long relationship with the family, approached the Duggars about doing “the first big interview since the confession” and since the TLC show was canceled.

“The Duggars said we would love to, however we will not address Josh’s trouble,” says our source. “People tried to negotiate and eventually played hardball, saying we’re doing the cover with or without you.”

The result was a write-around, with most quotes from a family insider.

Making matters worse is that while this week’s magazine is on stands, it leaked that Josh was a member of adult cheating website Ashley Madison, and that his information, like that of many site users, was hacked.

“That may actually work in People’s favor, because if you see that on a newsstand you’ll assume it’s inside the magazine,” laughs our source.

The "source" is right - People lucked out on the timing. The new cover certainly looks as if it's all about Josh's adultery and porn addiction, but in fact the new issue was published Wednesday morning, a few hours before the "Josh Duggar is on Ashley Madison" scandal broke in the press.