Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Magic/The Quibbler
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| Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Magic | |
| The Quibbler | |
|---|---|
| Type | Newspaper |
| Features | "Supermarket tabloid" of the Wizarding world |
| First Appearance | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix |
Contents |
[edit] Overview
The Quibbler is a sensationalist newspaper or magazine, much like the National Enquirer and the Weekly World News in the Muggle world. It prints stories that have been rejected by the established press, typically because they are apparently nonsense.
[edit] Extended Description
The publisher of The Quibbler is Luna Lovegood's father, Xenophilius Lovegood. We first see The Quibbler when Luna is reading it on the Hogwarts Express, deciphering a page which is deliberately printed upside down. It carries a story that suggests that in fact Sirius Black is in London, where he is performing in a rock band using the alias "Stubby Boardman".
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, when Harry is being pilloried in the traditional press for speaking honestly about his adventures, Hermione arranges with Luna and Rita Skeeter that Rita will interview Harry about Voldemort's return and write it up for publication, and Luna's father will then publish it. This results in Harry's story getting widely known, particularly at Hogwarts, where Professor Umbridge, a Ministry stooge, bans the paper as part of her attempts to cover up Voldemort's return.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a party of refugees mentions in Harry's hearing that The Quibbler is now printing stories about what is really going on, and exhorting its readers to help Harry. Later, Luna Lovegood is taken hostage to force The Quibbler to toe the party line. Before any of these new "party line" issues are actually released, however, Xeno Lovegood is himself taken hostage, and it is not mentioned whether The Quibbler is converted into another Ministry mouthpiece after this or simply shuts down with the absence of the editor.
[edit] Analysis
The purpose of The Quibbler, quite simply, is to give us an alternate channel of publicity from the establishment press. If the establishment controls the news reporting, it can slant and censor the news as it chooses; without an alternate channel, the government's views are the only ones that will see the light of day. Rita tells us that Fudge and the Ministry are leaning on The Daily Prophet, which is part of why they are slanting the stories the way they are; the other part of it is that nasty stories, like the ones Rita wrote (she is on imposed hiatus at that point), sell papers, and selling papers is actually the whole point.
