Book review: Gotcha!

Lumby, Catherine (1999) Gotcha! Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 1999.280 pp. ISBN 1 86508 073 X. Reviewed by Clem Gorman It may often seem as though the tabloid media - or papp (after papparazzi) media - is all about nothing. Princess Diana's alleged bulemia. The shape of President Clinton's penis. Is there a curse on the Kennedys? Woman's Day after day, E News after E News, Hard Copy after Hard Copy, the stream of nothing pours out - trivial, seductive, and ultimately unsatisfying: necessitating further ingestion. And here with that story is Catharine Lumby in Sydney, making a case that the papp media isn't as bad as it's made out to be by all those serious, elitist journalists who wish they were so popular.