Are Secret-Sharing Apps The New Blind Items?

By now, you're probably familiar with our opinion of blind items. In short, we're not fans. Unfounded gossip, often centered around breakups, infidelity, or other hardships can be detrimental to those involved. And, let's be honest, it doesn't benefit the reader much either. But now, it seems like blind items might be making the jump from gossip rags to our iPhones.

You may have heard of Whisper, a popular anonymous secret-sharing app. It's meant for spreading gossip or whistle-blowing, but now it seems it's become the new home for blind items. The reason the app caught our attention is the seemingly never-ending Gwyneth Paltrow/Vanity Fair debacle.

Yesterday, VF's Graydon Carter posted this month's editor's letter, in which he announced he would not be running the big Gwyneth tell-all we were expecting. He coyly added that he'll leave the "epic bombshells" for another publication to print. Then, immediately afterwards, Whisper posted a rumor claiming that Paltrow is cheating on her rocker husband Chris Martin. Paltrow's team is of course denying that the story is true — and we won't justify it by giving any more details — but the bigger issue here is the way in which the rumor was disseminated.

Churning out celebrity gossip through an app's push notification is a prime example of the "publish now, change later" mentality that gossip rags rely on nowadays. By the time Whisper — or anyone else — gets around to investigating the full story, the rumor will already have done its damage. We all like to be the first to know well, everything, but isn't this taking things a little too far? Tell us what you think in the comments below. (Defamer)