The Backbiting Journalists

This is the golden age of newspapers. They're everywhere, and so are their employees; any newspaper reporter could be a stock character - in fact, most of them are, because Andalusada recognizes the same News Tropes and uses them in the same basic ways.

When you have two of them, however, they transform into a world-specific trope worth talking about on its own: the Backbiting Journalists. Very much like Buddy Cops, Backbiting Journalists come in pairs; what makes them so tropey is the huge variety of ways their relationship (between each other and the rest of the cast) can be explored by any halfway-decent author. Where any other character archetype can show up, the Backbiting Journalists can too, and probably have at some point.

This trope is big, moreso than anything yet discussed.

Note: this page is for discussing the Backbiting Journalists as a trope in Andalusada's works of fiction. For discussion of actual journalism, see backbiting.

The Backbiting Journalists as an ensemble

Like Mormon missionaries IRL, Backbiting Journalists always come in matched pairs. Unlike Mormon missionaries IRL, it's a mixed-sex pair: the UCNA can be very homosocial, and newspapers have found that you get more interviews if people will talk to the interviewers. As such, look for Backbiting Journalist Guy and Backbiting Journalist Lady.

If they've decided that Our Heroes make for an interesting story, it's trivially easy for the reporters to unearth somebody's secret and make it known where it would do the most damage. This means that the Backbiting Journalists routinely serve as Those Two Bad Guys, with the carnage dialed down and the exposition turned up to eleven. (As a Greek Chorus, they can also call on the hive-mind of reporters to break the fourth wall - or provide information the audience couldn't possibly find out on their own.)

The Backbiting Journalists as a relationship

If the Backbiting Journalist Guy is a Muslim, the Backbiting Journalists will almost certainly be married to each other. This only works if he's a Muslim; since their job leaves them in each other's company for long periods of time, getting hitched means that they aren't hemmed in by modesty rules and so forth.

This marriage doesn't mean they have feelings towards each other (though it may be hinted at.) In fact, the odds are extremely likely that they won't. As their incompatibility increases, the likelihood of jokes about their marriage (arguing "like an old married couple") approaches 1.

• Backbiting Journalist Lady's mahr is an obvious candidate for a Chekhov's Gun. (On the other hand, the mahr may be completely irrelevant. Or played as a joke.)
• Because this marriage is quite literally one of convenience, marital fidelity is unimportant. A classic way to play with that marriage is to introduce Backbiting Journalist Guy's first wife, come around to make sure that they really are just partners. (Expect her to be quite jealous of Backbiting Journalist Lady, who's been hogging all the quality time with her husband.)
• A married Backbiting Journalist Lady, needless to say, is single, celibate and in no position to be looking. It doesn't mean she'll stop, though. (She's a backbiter; you expected something better of her?) Even if the Backbiting Journalists have no chemistry, though, marriage means that her romantic interests must be resolved as a Love Triangle. Because romance isn't necessarily a factor, a lot of Triang Relationships can get explored this way.

The breakup of the Backbiting Journalists' professional marriage can also be played with quite a bit too, in ways that need a background in Islamic marriage law to appreciate.

This is a stub. It will be expanded upon.