Is Cornell McGregor a good journalist? Yes.

Throughout the report, Cornell skillfully used the misalignment of facts and comments, and unwittingly achieved the effect of guiding public opinion and guiding readers.

First, he uses the word "deception" in the title, and uses Frank Abanell Jr. as a reference, with the subtext of condemning Lan Li's malicious hype. In this way, it is sensational, scary and shocking enough, firmly grabbing the attention of every reader, attracting a lot of attention, and creating preconceived psychological cues.

Second, he avoids expressing his personal opinion in his content, instead listing a large number of facts. But the order in which the facts are laid out is very intriguing, similar to the way montage is edited, suggesting that there is a "causal relationship" between the two events, but it is not explicitly stated, and then the reader thinks that this is their own judgment.

Finally, in terms of the layout of the article, he carefully emphasized the influence of the Grammys and the awards season to create a breaking point, and at the end of the article, he chose a topic with "history" to once again awaken people's inner doubts and curiosity. And then the whole article is based on the core idea of shady, hype and deception, which makes people involuntarily guess: this is the result of the monstrous power.

A really good journalist is actually the same as a really good director. They don't tell you directly, "This is right" and "This is wrong", but through the accumulation of a lot of psychological cues, they lead to a directional trend, and the rest of the thinking and reflection is left to the reader and the audience to play on their own.

Cornell did it, and so, the story fryed.

The whole article looks well-documented, clear-thought, and full of information, leaving little room for a turnaround, not only responding to the New York Times' previous report, but also going further with analysis. really achieved "all-encompassing", one hammer after another, and hit Lan Li's shoulder hard.

As Cornell said, in the past month, although Lan Li has been far away from the smoke of the main battlefield of the awards season, the discussion about him has never cooled down-

First came the box office stellar performances of "Love Crazy" and "Me Against Cancer", then the Golden Globe double nominations, then the news on the London film set, then the Oscar nominations, then the Berlin Film Festival, and suddenly the concert, and finally the Grammys.

The best Grammy in history since the turn of the millennium.

So, focus, focus, and focus.

The focus gathered on Lan Li has never cooled down, not to mention, the concert and the Grammys have both made history and written brilliantly, in just one week, Lan Li has climbed to a new peak in one go, and in the next awards season, he will undoubtedly launch an all-out sprint towards the Oscars.

It is against this background that this special report of "Entertainment Weekly" came out. It caused a sensation in the entire North American market, not only in the entertainment industry, but even social news and political/political news, which gradually evolved into a social event.

First of all, the feature was published on the official website of "Entertainment Weekly", and in the next 12 hours, the influx of visitors increased from an average of 30,000 per hour to an average of 3 million per hour, and the official server of "Entertainment Weekly" crashed directly, and it took 23 minutes to restart.

Despite this, the feature story had more than 40 million hits within 12 hours, which was the highest number of visits to a non-portal site, and more than 78,000 retweets of the feature story spread across the entire network, at least in North America, in almost half a day.

The most surprising thing is the message. More than 50,000 comments poured into the message board for the feature story — before that, the entire site had not reached 30,000 messages. Now, having reached its peak in one go, Entertainment Weekly has had to shut down the message board to avoid another server problem.

On Facebook, on Twitter, all of them are "Entertainment Weekly" feature reports, and the number of retweets by peer media alone has exceeded 7,000 times in six hours - this is including all social media data, all media retweeted this blockbuster report for the first time, and then raised questions:

Lan Li Hall, did he really deceive the whole world?

The characteristics of the Internet era and fast food culture were brought into full play at this moment, and even Cornell and "Entertainment Weekly" themselves did not expect that things would ferment and spread so quickly, almost like the Big Bang, "banging" and exploding.

Second, a feature was published in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, and the unbelievable happened: 300,000 copies of the magazine were sold out, and demand outstripped supply.

At the moment of Internet popularization, all print media are facing the dilemma of declining sales. For the second year in a row, Entertainment Weekly has been selling between 230,000 and 250,000 copies per month, and in the past four months, even with the bonus of awards season, the best-selling November issue of Entertainment Weekly has only been 210,000 copies, and the worst-selling Christmas issue has been 170,000 copies.

But this time, 300,000 copies were sold out in one go! Moreover, the mailboxes were crowded with purchase mails, and more than 1,000 were sent one after another.

As a result, "Entertainment Weekly" immediately decided to print 100,000 copies. It was an adventure and a gamble, but they succeeded.

Ninety percent of the 100,000 copies of the 100,000 copies were sold before nightfall, and it is believed that the remaining few magazines will be sold out in the next few days. This is the first time that "Entertainment Weekly" has sold more than 300,000 copies of the magazine since the special issue of the Oscars in 2008.

From the Internet to the real, from the virtual to the real, from the entertainment industry to other industries, the article "Rite Hall: The Man Who Deceived the World!" is spreading at the speed of light, and it doesn't take twenty-four hours at all, and more than a quarter of Americans have heard the news and joined the discussion.

And then, things snowballed, getting bigger and bigger, and they couldn't stop at all.

The reporters didn't even have time to interview Lan Li or call Andy, because they had to be the first to report and respond to Cornell's feature: for or against, for sure or with contempt, with discussion or onlookers......

In the age of the Internet, if you don't retweet such hot news for the first time, loyal subscribers will immediately feel that they are outdated and disappointed, and the subscription rate and attention will decline far faster than you think. Therefore, they must forward first, respond first, and even if it is a neutral position of "wait and see", they must write and publish the manuscript, and after completing this series of actions, they can further follow the news.

So, for the next 12 hours, the network presented this scene:

"Lanley-Hall, is he really a liar?"

"The master of hype, the master of lies, or the real innocence?"

Behind the rapid rise of "Is there a lot of popularity? Or is it not groundless? Behind the rapid rise, Lan Li-Hall is facing doubts. ”

"Behind the big tree and the strong rise, what secrets is Lanli-Hall hiding?"

"Ranley Hall = Frank Arbanel Jr.?The most handsome fraudster in history, the most gentlemanly liar in history. ”

"Only twenty-two years old. The secret of Lanley-Hall's success: malicious hype? or strength?

……

In order to maintain objectivity, reporters either abandon the commentary and simply reprint the news, or put forward a different point of view, leaving a long list of question marks.

But today, to a greater or lesser extent, the headlines of journalists are tendentious: it seems that most people have preconceived assumptions that Cornell's report is correct and objective, but they still need to verify it further.

Not only because Cornell is clever enough in writing special features, but also because in the past two years, reporters have suffered a lot in front of Lan Li, not to mention last year's "Seattle Expedition", on other occasions, reporters and Lan Li have always been unable to confront each other.

What's more, deep down, the reporters have always been angry with Lan Li: So far, no one has unearthed Lan Li's net worth! In the 21st century, this is simply a shame!

Naturally, journalists see such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to unconsciously steer public opinion, so why not?

"The top favorite seed of the awards season, the PR scandal of the Blue Rite-Hall Academy has been exposed!"

"The impact on the actor was blocked, and Lan Li-Hall was accused of 'doing whatever it takes to win the Oscars'!"

"The biggest scandal of the awards season is here: Lan Li-Hall cheated everyone!"

"The ugliness hidden behind the glamour - the public relations strategy of the important seed contestants of the Oscar winner has been exposed. ”

"Cunning, wise, treacherous, clever, tear off the gentleman's mask of Lan Li-Hall, and peek into the true soul beneath the skin!"

……

The above news is much sharper and sharper, they completely skipped the evidence and verification link, and determined the authenticity and correctness of Cornell's report in advance - or rather, they don't care about the truth at all, only care about the breaking points and gimmicks, just like "Entertainment Weekly", they can't wait to start concocting the focus as soon as possible.

These news media not only stood on the moral high ground and criticized and judged Lan Li, but also linked Lan Li with the dirt and dirt of the college's public relations, sharply analyzed the shortcomings behind the industry, and seemed to regard Lan Li as a typical example, completely nailed to the pillar of shame.

Nearly two-thirds of the entertainment magazines and newspapers reported on it and joined the discussion at the first time, which is really beyond imagination. What's even more "coincidental" is that not long ago, Hollywood released negative news about Lan Li-Hall one after another, and now, it seems that all the "negative rumors" have been confirmed.

Is this a coincidence or a trap?