Louis Tomlinson: Who’s Really Behind The Press Attacks On One Direction Star?
The past week has been a fairly typical one for Louis Tomlinson. Over the course of the past week, One Direction singer Tomlinson has been the subject of a number of unfounded, and on occasion downright nasty, attacks on his character. Over the course of the last 12 months, the number of articles attacking Louis character seems to have increased. Tomlinson’s fans are at a loss to understand why Louis has become such a target for negative reporting. Most One Direction fans see Louis as a kind and generous young man who is a major contributor to children’s charities in both cash and time.
We know that Tomlinson and his family are aware of the negativity that is thrown in Louis direction. Tomlinson’s mother, Johannah Deakin, has hit out on a number of occasions saying that the press “do not know the real Louis,” and this is doubtless true. Louis does little to defend himself in the press, but we did recently have a real insight into the real Tomlinson. In an exclusive interview with the Inquisitr, Sarah Hext, the mother of Louis’ “Fly High Buddy” Harvey Hext gave a real insight into Louis kindness, thoughtfulness, and generosity. Sarah has become close to both Louis and Johannah, and she told us how Tomlinson reacts to bad press.
Fly high buddy x pic.twitter.com/NjcGHh6KmO
— Louis Tomlinson (@Louis_Tomlinson) December 7, 2015
Sarah and her family lost Harvey to the childhood cancer neuroblastoma at the end of November and spoke out because she feels Louis is so badly treated by some sections of the media.
“Louis and Jay have given us precious memories with Harvey and all of our children and that is priceless, we have so many beautiful photos of Harvey to look back on in some amazing places!
“People don’t know the real Louis, Jay has told me that when Louis suffers a bad press day he says to her ‘come on mum, let’s make someone happy today.’ That’s the kind of man Louis is. Louis Tomlinson is very grounded, he is family orientated and both Louis and Jay hold a very special place in my family’s hearts.”
Sarah also shared some of the amazingly kind and generous things that Tomlinson had does for her family. Yet, despite Tomlinson’s kindness, he is subjected to a never-ending cycle of negative reporting. No fan of Tomlinson’s need to be reminded of the attacks he was subjected to last year, so as an example, let’s just look at some of the headlines about Louis that have been run in the last week.
On Wednesday, Unreality TV reported that they had “proof that Louis Tomlinson is avoiding Harry Styles.” The so-called proof was that Louis had flown to the U.K. just hours after Styles arrived in Los Angeles. The fact that Louis flew to the U.K. to attend a memorial service for his grandfather, Keith Tomlinson, who passed away recently, is conveniently overlooked. Why let a detail like that get in the way of furthering the narrative that claims that Styles and Tomlinson hate each other?
You can almost forgive webzines for reporting gossip without checking facts, but when it comes to major media outlets, they should be held to higher standards. On Thursday, the Daily Mirror delighted in telling us that they had uncovered “shocking” pictures that showed Louis “drinking under-age and pretending to punch a doll.”
Wild throwback pics found from Louis Tomlinson's MYSPACE page https://t.co/sFKszLHEed pic.twitter.com/jxbHfjJiUe
— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) March 17, 2016
As a U.K. newspaper, one would be entitled to think that the Mirror would have some knowledge of U.K. law. The fact is that Louis was not drinking under age. The liquor laws in the U.K. relate only to licensed premises, and Tomlinson was clearly in someone’s private home. There is no law governing the age that people can legally drink in private homes, save that it is a crime to administer alcohol to a child under 5-years-old.
The Daily Mail, another U.K. tabloid, also repeated the Mirror‘s claims whilst telling us that “Tomlinson’s bandmate Niall Horan is also seen in a retro snap from his social media, sticking his tongue out and holding a cider can up to the camera.” There you have it, Louis pretended to punch a doll, and Niall stuck his tongue out. It hardly ranks as scandal of the century. Of course, it is not the “one-off” ridiculous story that does the damage, it is the constant drip feeding of negativity that brings down Tomlinson and many celebrities before him.
Amazing awareness raised by the lovely @OneDirection @JohannahDeakin fans https://t.co/gm3vX1OVGI
Thank you— Niamh’s Next Step CIO (@NiamhsNextStep) March 15, 2016
It is arguably another tabloid, the Sun, that is Louis’ protagonist-in-chief. Over the past year, they have run dozens of articles slamming Tomlinson. If you took all of the attacks at face value, you would be forgiven for believing that Louis had upset someone in the press corps and was being slaughtered as a result.
Many of Tomlinson’s fans think the issue goes much deeper than that. It was recently reported in the Inquisitr that Simon Cowell and the rest of One Direction’s management team have close links into all of the major outlets mentioned above. There can be little doubt that One Direction’s team have the contacts to make influential interventions on behalf of Tomlinson and his bandmates. Simon Cowell’s head of PR is married to the U.S. editor of the Sun, for goodness sake, yet the paper rarely makes any kind of positive comment about any member of One Direction.
If you trawl the news reports, you will find that One Direction’s team never make any comment on the personal lives of Tomlinson and the rest of the band. Any official comment is restricted to business matters. Most reports that focus on rumors and gossip about private matters contain nothing from Tomlinson’s management and yet the Sun had no problem getting a comment when they reported today that One Direction’s tax affairs may be coming under scrutiny.
It is perhaps likely that One Direction’s management has a policy not to comment on the private affairs of Tomlinson and his pals. By doing so, many of Tomlinson’s fans believe that Louis is badly let down by his team. Worse still, many fans believe that Tomlinson’s team have consistently leaked stories about Louis and the others to the press. It may be coincidence that the Sun’s U.S. editor, Pete Samson, exclusively broke the story that Louis was to become a dad. It may well be that Samson and his wife separate their private and business lives, but try telling that to Tomlinson’s fans.
It may be that we will never know who is behind the negative reporting on Tomlinson, but many of Louis fans will never believe that One Direction’s management have the power to support Louis and choose not to do so.
[Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP]
