It's important to remember the ongoing controversial statements by the creator of the Harry Potter franchise. CBR supports the hard work of industry professionals on properties fans know and love and the wider world of Harry Potter that fans have adopted as their own. You can find CBR's continuing coverage on J.K. Rowling here.
The Harry Potter franchise featured many unlikeable personalities. From Dolores Umbridge to Peter Pettigrew, the series managed to portray devious characters as perfect opposites to their pleasant counterparts. J.K. Rowling even created frustration and tragedy among the different factions that led to action-packed battles like those between Harry and Draco Malfoy. However, the Harry Potter movies proved that there was one character who managed to manipulate and infuriate without posing an immediate magical threat -- Rita Skeeter.
Harry Potter was usually known for its representation of all things magic, yet Rita was a simple journalist for the Daily Prophet. Known to manipulate the truth according to her own desires, Rita's magical powers were not the reason for her detrimental effect on the Wizarding World. Admired by many but despised by more, Rita counted many victims of her manipulative journalism. Harry, Hagrid and even Dumbledore weren't safe from her writing and had to learn the hard way what damage one nasty person's writing could cause.
Rita Skeeter Made up Some Truly Nasty Stories in Harry Potter
Rita was known for her, let's say, inventive writing during her career as a journalist in the Harry Potter movies. Her highly distorted stories definitely altered some perspectives, especially during the Triwizard Tournament in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. After luring Harry into an interview, Rita wrote an unsurprisingly negative and biased article on Harry surrounding his relationship with Hermione and his whiny attitude about the death of his parents. As a result, Harry had to face some serious backlash that only added to the discontent his schoolmates were already experiencing due to his supposable deceptive way of entering the Triwizard Tournament while underaged. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire displayed Harry at his lowest point, having to face dangerous challenges while only being backed up by his close friends. Rita's article surely made things worse and could have gotten Harry killed for his lack of support system.
Harry was not the only person affected by Rita's nasty and duplicitous storytelling. She might have gone too far when writing about Dumbledore, while even the kind-hearted Hagrid wasn't safe from her "gotcha" journalism. Rita wrote an extremely negative biography titled The Life and Lies of Dumbledore following Dumbledore's death in Harry Potter. Not only did Rita besmirch Dumbledore's legacy, but she also employed some unethical methods to obtain information using the Veritaserum potion. Hagrid was hit rather mildly as Rita only revealed his half-giant heritage, but it exposed him to insults by frightened parents.
Rita Skeeter Made One Positive Contribution to the Wizarding World
Rita did make one positive contribution to the Harry Potter universe. During Umbridge's rule of Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry set out to let the world know about Voldemort's return. Rallying up little support from the journalists at the Daily Prophet, Hermione managed to convince Rita to help Harry out and publish an article in the Quibbler, a wizarding tabloid run by Luna Lovegood's father. But Rita was not driven by the goodness of her heart -- she was merely blackmailed by Hermione, who threatened to make her unregistered status as an Animagus public to the Ministry of Magic.
The Harry Potter franchise initially portrayed Rita as a persistent and hard-working journalist. Unfortunately, Rita ended up sticking out through her nastiness rather than her cunning journalism. Making only a handful of meaningful contributions to the Harry Potter universe, Rita consistently prioritized her own nasty intentions over the lives of the people she came after.