George Clooney calls out ‘Daily Mail’ for publishing celeb kids pictures

In an open letter, Clooney addresses his fear for safety after publications post childrens’ pictures

The Oscar-winning American actor, George Clooney, issued an open letter to call out a British tabloid, Daily Mail, on Thursday. The letter was made public and it addresses the Daily Mail’s recent story on actor Billie Lourd and her one-year-old baby.

The tabloid allegedly published a picture of Lourd’s baby, Kingston, and then later removed it from online platforms. While Daily Mail has not responded to this allegation, their recent story on Lourd and her family does not show the baby’s face. However, Clooney fears that such irresponsible acts can be a safety hazard for celebrity kids and asks the tabloid to refrain from publishing anything that can put them in the limelight.

While the letter openly calls out Daily Mail, Clooney has written this plea to “other outlets” as well to not be “intrusive” and urge them to actively realise the matter. Celebrities, as public figures, have a lot of their life on display and Clooney acknowledged that having his photographs featured in publications and tabloids is “part of the price for doing my job.”

However, he added that “his children have made no such commitment,” and they should not be dragged into public matters for clout and engagement.

Another reason for Clooney’s worry is the nature of his activist wife, Amal Clooney’s, job. Amal works as a human rights lawyer and part of her job possesses possible risks for their family already. “The nature of my wife’s work has her confronting and putting on trial terrorist groups,” requiring serious safety precautions in their private life, Clooney wrote. “We cannot protect our children if any publication puts their faces on their cover,” he added.

Clooney asks publications and tabloids to treat family matters with more sensitivity. He ended the letter stating that he “hopes that you (the publication) would agree that the need to sell advertisements is not greater than the need to keep innocent children from being targeted.”

He clarifies that his family and him are not active on social media and that may be a conscious choice. Noting that he has never sold a picture of his children, he said doing so would place his children’s “lives in jeopardy. Not paranoid jeopardy but real-world issues, with real-world consequences.”

His letter states:  “Having just seen photos of Billie Lourd’s 1-year-old baby in your publication, and the fact that you subsequently took those pictures down, we would request that you refrain from putting our children’s faces in your publication. I am a public figure and accept the oftentimes intrusive photos as part of the price to pay for doing my job. Our children have made no such commitment. The nature of my wife’s work has her confronting and putting on trial terrorist groups and we take as much precaution as we can to keep our family safe. We cannot protect our children if any publication puts their faces on their cover. We have never sold a picture of our kids, we are not on social media and never post pictures because to do so would put their lives in jeopardy. Not paranoid jeopardy but real-world issues, with real-world consequences.”

It adds, “We hope that you would agree that the need to sell advertisements isn’t greater than the need to keep innocent children from being targeted. Thank you, George Clooney.”

Unfortunately, however, this is not the first time that Daily Mail has been called out for unethical journalism. The tabloid has been in the headlines many times for losing its advertisers based on misusing press freedom.

The Guardian, in one of its articles, regarded the Daily Mail as an “unreliable source.” The story was on the popular search engine, Wikipedia, banning Daily News due to its “reputation for poor fact-checking and sensationalism.” The article discusses the tabloid’s urgent need of creating click-bait headlines regardless of its connection to reality.

In another TV interview with CNBC, the founder of Wikipedia, James Wales shared his opinions on the website’s ban.  “I think what they’ve done brilliantly in this ad-funded world (is) they’ve mastered the art of clickbait, they’ve mastered the art of hyped-up headlines, they’ve also mastered the art of, I’m sad to say, of running stories that simply aren’t true,” Wales said in the interview.

He continued, “And that’s why Wikipedia decided not to accept them as a source anymore. It’s very problematic, they get very upset when we say this, but it’s just fact, so there you go.” In the past years, Daily Mail has reportedly dealt with such ethical claims and has undergone a political storm despite being United Kingdom’s biggest tabloid.