Or, to put in another way, when was the last time you were taken in by a fabricated story about a celebrity? And were you even aware you were being duped?
Film director Chris Atkins wanted to find out if it's easy to get a newspaper to print a made-up story without checking the facts. The result is a film, Starsuckers, which threatens to do to tabloid journalism what Supersize Me did to the fast-food industry.
Atkins was interviewed on BBC 5 Live Breakfast along with Chris Horrie, a journalist who's written a number of books about the tabloids.
"If it's about a serious public matter of public concern, then you definitely do have to check the facts," observes Horrie.
But he concludes of tabloid coverage: "If it's mere trivia, mere tittle-tattle, the whole consequences of getting it wrong are much lower ... It's a different world when you're talking about showbiz."
Would the BBC ever stoop to deliberate fabrication? No. But, says Atkins:
"The problem is ... once it's printed by The Sun or The Mirror it then does get run on the BBC and all sorts of other places who wouldn't run the story in the first place, but they repeat it as though it was true because The Sun and The Mirror has said it."
Of course, interjects Shelagh Fogarty, the BBC would attribute a particular story to the newspaper that printed it. But Atkins is convinced that:
"The listeners just hear it repeated. I know it's 'caveated' by 'The Mirror has said this', but it still gets repeated."
The BBC's Editorial Guidelines are explicit.
"The BBC's commitment to accuracy is a core editorial value and fundamental to our reputation. Our output must be well sourced, based on sound evidence, thoroughly tested and presented in clear, precise language."
There's no mention here or anywhere else of the kind of accuracy 'lite' that's sometimes taken to apply to entertainment stories, or the unchallenged repetition of showbiz stories in the tabloids and elsewhere.
Never done it?
OK, when was the last time you let a guest paper reviewer chortle on about some piece of tabloid trivia without wondering - and asking - if there was clear evidence to support the story? Chances are you'd have no way of knowing.
So what's the best course of action? Apply the old adage, refuse to believe anything you read in the papers and take everything with a hefty pinch of salt?
The BBC College of Journalism website's a good starting point. You can find out more about the commitment to truth and accuracy - and the rest of the BBC's editorial values - plus practical advice about how to enshrine them in your journalism.
They're there to guide journalists who want to reverse the parlous situation where, as Atkins puts it, "[false information] gets regurgitated around the world and this is what our news media has turned into".
