Notorious British tabloid The Daily Mail published an exposé on August 6, 2026, then deleted the article two weeks later with no explanation or accountability. The story claimed to reveal Meg White’s “secret new life”, as the former White Stripes drummer has stayed out of the spotlight since she and Jack White dissolved the band a few years after their 2007 album.Senior reporter for The Daily Mail Joe Hutchison described White as a “reclusive female music megastar”. The paper claimed to have the first public images of White in almost 17 years, publishing voyeuristic paparazzi photos of a woman getting out of a car in front of a Detroit restaurant and socializing with two other people on the sidewalk. However, the tabloid caught heat for this story after confirmation that Meg White wasn’t actually in the photos. Instead, the unsuspecting woman was a friend of White’s. The Daily Mail followed this woman and took photos of her without her consent. Furthermore, they continued to stalk her even after evidence of mistaken identity, completely ignoring the facts. Then, they publicly ran the story online. “Neither Meg nor the friend that was pictured had any idea they were being stalked and, if they had, they for sure would not have voluntarily chosen to be featured in anything having to do with the Daily Mail,” said a record executive who worked with The White Stripes and remains close with Meg White, speaking anonymously to The Guardian about the incident.Media Experts Highlight Disregard for Journalistic Ethics in ‘The Daily Mail’ Story About Meg WhiteThe anonymous source added, “I can also assure you that Meg is well and is living the private life she chooses and deserves in Detroit.” They also confirmed that neither White nor her friend would be speaking to the press in any capacity. According to reports in The Guardian, this type of invasive tabloid journalism is typical of The Daily Mail. It’s even banned from Wikipedia as a source due to its penchant for fabrication. But journalists and media scholars agree that this incident blatantly goes beyond modern-day ethics.Despite the Detroit woman correcting them, the paper still claimed she was Meg White. They came to this conclusion when she responded “thank you” after the reporter complimented The White Stripes’ music. This occurred while the reporter and photographer were essentially stalking her. Apparently, this was confirmation enough for The Daily Mail. Dan Axelrod, chair of the ethics committee at the Society of Professional Journalists, told The Guardian that The Daily Mail “followed none of the most basic principles of journalism”. Celebrity tabloids have historically engaged in borderline inhumane practices. But Axelrod added that this woman “didn’t deserve to be chased around by the Daily Mail, ogled, photographed, and chronicled like a circus bear.”‘Tabloids Like This Tend To View Celebrity Status as Permission To Do Whatever’Singer-songwriter Karen Elson, also formerly married to Jack White, posted a now-deleted tweet addressing the story. “What’s so disheartening is the great lengths they took to try and hunt her down and how reckless and cruel it was to post images of another woman all over the internet,” she wrote, according to The Guardian. Media experts have stated that an incident like this calls for more than just deleting the story. “Tabloids like this tend to view celebrity status as permission to do whatever in terms of violating privacy under the guise of ‘they are public figures so they have to expect this and/or even are asking for it,’” said Erin Meyers, professor of communication at Detroit’s Oakland University. With a private citizen involved, there’s no gray area of celebrity for a tabloid to fall back on. And sweeping the story under the rug is an admission of guilt without accountability. Experts indicate the need for an acknowledgement or correction, at the very least. Ideally, a full apology. But, according to Meyers, an apology wouldn’t “[fit] in with [The Daily Mail’s] bulldog sort of approach to reporting, so instead they just bury it.” Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, IncThe post British Tabloid ‘Exposed’ Reclusive 2000s-Era Drummer’s Secret Life, but Actually Stalked a Random Detroit Woman Instead appeared first on VICE.