As any tabloid newspaper can testify, there are three factors guaranteed to revive a flagging circulation – celebrity, sex and the element of surprise. With Johnny Depp, Bulgarian media got all three for the price of one.

The news about the actor’s “incognito visit” to the coastal town of Burgas made a blast in the media last week, mixing the perfect late-summer cocktail of high-life, excitement and fun. Only to burst spectacularly like a party balloon after it was officially exposed as an advertisement hoax. The ad made the big time, only to show that Bulgarian journalists should raise their standards a notch at least.

What is the truth, really?

I have personally seen many a time Bulgaria’s Johnny Depp – kissing passionately his girlfriend at the park, riding on the bus or shopping at the mall. His name is Georgi Velizarov, 23, a Bulgarian actor with a striking resemblance to Depp. So it was easy for me to suspect that he may be the person photographed on the balcony of hotel “Primorets” in Bulgaria's southern coastal city of Burgas. A simple, but subtle PR stunt, designed to promote a brand new site for photographs and the newly renovated hotel, until recently marred by the infamous glory of a den of local mobsters.

A healthy dose of skepticism and professionalism could have protected the Bulgarian media from making the gullible mistake of taking an ad for a report, couldn’t it?

The distinction between fact and claim is vital in news. The Johnny Depp story showcases the manipulative power of the media and evokes parallels with the fake news report about an explosion at Kozloduy nuclear plant of the satirical television show “Kuku” from twenty years ago. What we saw these days is an avalanche of news – not only in tabloids, but in TV channels as well – which delayed or even skipped the attribution, creating nothing but confusion in the mind of the reader and the audience. Not to mention the fact that nobody picked the phone to call Depp’s producer and at least try to find an answer to the question on everybody’s mind.

For the audience, much of the push-pull was between its common sense and information it received. Finally it did what it had the right to do – take the information at face value. It was the media who failed to do its part – get data from credible sources.

Celebrity journalism has exploded in Bulgaria over the last few years in line with the boom of the raunchy popfolk music (derogatorily called chalga), the glossy magazines and tabloids. But it has always been fraught with questions of credibility, as journalists rush to break sensational news, intrigue readers, boost sales and revenues sometimes even by turning into vehicles for advertising by stars who pay to appear on the cover, for example.

What this means is that media stories are routinely based on unchecked press releases and it is stretching a point to call it “news writing”. What the media is facing today is the gloomy recognition that it has lost credibility with the public and owes it an apology.

The crafty advertising agents that came up with Johnny Depp plot certainly deserve a pat on the back, even though the idea is a bit archaic and dates back to the 70s. They managed to lay bare the sins of the Bulgarian journalism, shook the audience out of its existential summer boredom and created sweeping news in a subtle and elegant way. That took courage!

Yes, they did manage to build Primorets hotel and its marble-floored palazzos in a day. But the journalists did not have to be the chambermaids scrubbing those floors on their hands and knees. “Verify” and “Don’t cut corners” should be their rule number one.

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