Robert Downey Jr. has been in the press a lot lately, not for his role in the upcoming Avengers movie, but for an interview with Channel 4 News, a British paid-per-view station (sort of like HBO). Krishnan Guru-Murthy started off the interview talking about his role in the Avengers and slowly shifted to Downey Jr.’s personal life. The whole interview ended with Robert Downey Jr. looking uncomfortable and storming out of the room. Now as a journalist, this created a lot of questions for me. Was Guru-Murthy in the wrong for asking those kinds of questions? Is a celebrity’s personal life fair game in the news?
Now before we dive into the issue, its import to look at Robert Downey Jr.’s past to see why he got upset. His father got him started on drugs at a young age. Now Downey Jr. has talked about this in the past and it isn’t related to the new movie, so why does Guru-Murthy try to bring it up?
The interview is the most popular video on Channel 4 New’s YouTube channel, at eight million views. The rest of their videos don’t even come close, so this interviewer brought in massive amounts of attention.
It’s easy to see that these questions were asked in order to create controversy and bump up the viewer count. Downey’s interview definitely brought attention to the station, as I and most people have never heard of the channel until this interview.
Also important to note, the third most watched video is an interview with director Quentin Tarantino in 2013, where a similar situation occurred.
Guru-Murthy Interviews Tarantino about the film “Django Unchained,” which later leads to questions about violence in films. Tarantino goes on to that he didn’t want to talk about violence in films like he had done in the past and that this interview was a commercial for his movie. And he’s right. Let’s be honest here, that interview was a commercial for the move. That’s why Tarantino was there. Now Guru-Murthy had a right to ask those question, but should he have?
Guru-Murthy stated after the interview that Channel 4 isn’t here to promote movies, they’re here to promote news, and I understand that. Channel 4 isn’t ad-agency, but they’re not TMZ either. When comparing both the Tarantino and Downey Jr., it’s clear to see Guru-Murthy plan of attack. He starts out asking question about the movie and slowly moves towards their personal life. This makes sense. He’s a news reporter and wants to talk about news and the celebrities are here to promote their stuff, so he tries to please both crowds without sounding like he’s their personal commercial. But Guru-Murthy isn’t prying for news. He’s asking for their opinions on politics and diving into their personal lives. He’s trying to create a repose from them, and that’s wrong. Basically, he’s baiting them to create a scene for the views, and it’s working.
I have read some articles that stated that there was an agreement between the two parties beforehand about discussing Downey Jr.’s past, but the fact that Downey Jr. is nervous when his past is brought up and appears very unwilling to talk about it shows that he wasn’t prepared for these kinds of questions. This is what’s most wrong about the whole episode, the lack of or at the very least the appearance of the lack of consent.
I understand Channel 4 News wanting to talk about, well, news, but when you bring in celebrities to promote their products, it’s difficult to change the subject to something news worthy. I don’t think Guru-Murthy is wrong for asking these kinds of questions, but the context with under which they were asked is wrong. You have two opposing groups wanting different things and it turns into a mess. That’s how I would describe this news segment, a mess.
So if you want to talk about news, then don’t talk about celebrity’s personal lives. That isn’t news. There needs to be a line drawn. Celebrity gossip has it places. Let’s not let it creepy into our lives any more than it has to.
Would do you think, is it wrong to ask celebrities of their personal lives, is that to be expected?
Leave your response in the comment section below.
I await your opinions.