Madonna Press Coverage: Real News Or Ridiculous Clickbait?

Now that Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour is over, the tabloids are having a hard time trying to make up false stories, such as the ones about her actually being drunk on stage. Despite being declared “irrelevant,” Madonna is, perhaps, one of the most relevant names in clickbait. This is why stories about her drawing some yellow lines to protect her driveway make headlines.

In terms of Madonna press coverage, this past week has been great (if you are a Madonna hater), hilarious (if you know how the tabloids work) or depressing (if you are Madonna). Perhaps the most hilarious article was published as major news on the Daily Mail. The article tried to convince readers how irrelevant Madonna is because she’s allegedly “toxic” to millennials, even though four separate articles about Madonna appeared on the news headline column next to this allegedly major news item when it first appeared.

“The 57-year-old star has been slammed by millennials in a recent study, which found she was 17 times less influential than singer Taylor Swift. A group of 1,000 Americans were quizzed during the study with many unimpressed with Madge’s recent on-stage antics.”

Polling students at one school campus in a study that aims to demean the singer hardly represents a valid study. The fact that they even polled students about Madonna, rather then Belinda Carlisle, Cyndi Lauper, or even Pat Benatar, shows how relevant Madonna still is. The fact that they chose Madonna, rather than George Michael, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, or even Steven Tyler for the study, shows that — possibly — the whole study is even sexist.

However, it’s quite possible that if a valid study was done, it would show that — shocker — Madonna is far less popular to millennials than Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift. A study 20 years ago would easily show that Barbara Streisand was less popular to Generation X than Madonna, Mariah Carey, or even Pearl Jam.

Later in the week, the Daily Mail once again topped their headline news page with an article condemning Madonna for parking on yellow lines she had painted to stop drivers from parking in her driveway. The article was almost a parody of an anti-Madonna article, at least according to the readers who commented after the article.

“According to NYC law, it’s perfectly legal for any vehicle registered to Madonna to park in front of her driveway. The way this story has been portrayed in the media is misleading,” claimed Lola Heart.

“She’s allowed to park her car outside her OWN home. A total non-story,” claimed Sam.

Perhaps, a more newsworthy story about Madonna appeared in Billboard earlier this week. The article celebrated the fact that Madonna held the top 11 positions on the Current Boxscore list for her final Rebel Heart Tour dates. It was one of the only non-tabloid articles about Madonna that appeared this week.

According to the article, Madonna’s concert at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, was at No. 1 on the list. She played two shows that attracted 37,706 fans. Both shows made a whopping $9,609,418. On the lower end of the scale, Madonna’s show in Brisbane, Australia, attracted 13,886 fans and earned her $2,332,579. Madonna earned a lot of criticism for this show since she showed up hours late.

A story about Madonna suing the owners of her apartment building appeared on TMZ. Though some may call it clickbait, the article appears to be true. Madonna doesn’t think it’s fair that she has to be home when her kids are; she travels a lot and apparently doesn’t want to drag her kids everywhere she goes. The apartment owners won’t even allow for hired help to be with the kids, unless Madonna is there as well.

The next week of Madonna press coverage should be interesting since she is allegedly going to London to talk with her son Rocco as well as her ex-husband Guy Ritchie. If things don’t quite work out for Madonna, you can at least bet the tabloid press will create some “interesting” articles.

[Photo by Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images]