The Media Blog

Lineker puts the boot in to Daily Star

Today's Daily Star carries a headline suggesting BBC football pundit Gary Lineker has branded the current England team "losers" in a "shock new interview":

The "shock new interview" was actually just the Daily Star lifting quotes from a Reader's Digest interview with Lineker in which the former onion-bag troubler joked that at least we'll all have the Olympics to look forward to should England disappoint as has become the norm in major tournaments.

"As England invariably let you down it's great to have the [Olympics] to look forward to..."

Lineker took offence at the Daily Star's front page distortion and shared his complaint with his 650,000 Twitter followers:  

You have to admire the brassneck of the explanation: 'We only claimed you said it, we don't actually quote you saying it'. This unconvincing explanation was apparently followed by an apology.

Don't hold your breath Gary. And if it does appear it will be harder to find than a clip of Lineker scoring from outside the 18 yard box.

See also:

"A cascade of shit": Daily Star branded 'work of fiction' by own reporter
The Daily Star's Barrymore Barton story may disappoint
BBC breaks latest England team shock
Well Rio, if you will tweet such things

High Street posters get added honesty

Add this to the list of adverts vandalised in a creative, pointed fashion: a street artist in Hamburg has taken it upon themselves to start adding Photoshop toolboxes to adverts which carry obviously manipulated images:

[Source: Uncharted Maps.]

All in this together...?

A Telegraph reader writes...

(Hat tip India Knight)

BBC breaks latest England team shock

Roy Hodgson's time in the England hotseat has already seen him effectively force one big star into international retirement. Now according to the BBC website, England midfielder Scott Parker has been warned he may not be playing when he's 121 years old. Guess it'll be up to him to prove he's still got a good engine on him...

It's obviously a mistake of course. There won't be a Euro 2102...that'll be a World Cup year.

(Hat tip @WillRolls).

The Daily Star's Barrymore Barton story may disappoint

In the small hours of Monday morning, former gameshow host Michael Barrymore asked controversial footballer Joey Barton whether he was OK, via Twitter. That was nice of him:

Barton, who's probably been a little distracted since his violent meltdown on the pitch last Sunday, didn't reply. And that was the end of things, or so you would have thought.

Somehow the Daily Star has today managed to turn this into a front page story, which includes probably the most over-ambitious offer of a "Full Story" inside ever used by a British newspaper. The full story is: Barrymore tweeted, Barton didn't reply. I fear there may be some padding awaiting those people who turn to Page 3.

Well Rio, if you will tweet such things

Back in February, footballer Rio Ferdinand very publicly tweeted his support for Harry Redknapp to be the next England manager. Ferdinand said Redknapp would be his choice "by a distance".

Now, it's probably unrelated, but today Roy Hodgson - who actually got the job - is expected to announce he's decided against taking Rio to Euro 2012.

But it's art...

Say what you like about the Daily Mail, but the paper is absolutely committed to stopping people viewing naked pictures online...unless it happens to be on the Mail Online website. Today it has published a naked picture of Madonna, but only because it's art of course. It's also not every day you see the word 'pudenda' in the news:

Madonna, naked. But only because it's art of course.

Mail admits to "gratuitous" eye-candy

I wonder if somebody at the Daily Mail got told off for the high number of 'Write caption here' style captions which litter its website. I only ask because it seems the Mail has decided upon a new house style for their holding text:

(Hat tip Helen.)

Hmmmm cake...

The Daily Express today offers tips to it readers on how to fight diabetes. It's also offering them free cake, because nobody should fight diabetes on an empty stomach.

(Hat tip PAB)

Giles Coren: Not good with criticism

Is the irascible Giles Coren getting a bit less verbose with age? Back in 2008 Coren used over 1,000 words to castigate The Times' sub-editors by email. But now, with Twitter the default medium for all it seems Coren gets to the punch a little more directly.

It's also safe to say he doesn't take criticism well: 

What a charmer.

While the criticism aimed at Coren was obviously unwelcome and a little rude, by the knockabout standards of Twitter and the frank barbs Coren can certainly dish out to others it was closer to constructive feedback than wanton trolling. Coren's response meanwhile is vile by anybody's standards.

Discussing his comments with another tweeter, Coren explained:

"some people think twitter is a device to be rude to people they don't know. i won't stand for that."

Clearly. Unless it's done in the name of brattish retaliation.

Shaggy dog story

It's hard to work out whether today's Daily Star front page lead on Pudsey the dog, is a case of trying too hard or not trying at all:

Alan Sugar's Twitter spat backfires

Alan Sugar has shared the email address of Mirror TV critic Kevin O'Sullivan on Twitter - urging his 1.9 million followers (through a thin veil of sarcasm) to email O'Sullivan following a negative review of The Apprentice in which the critic branded the current series the worst yet:

The tactic hasn't gone down well for Sugar. Some have suggested it looks desperate or petty, while O'Sullivan has claimed: "The vast majority of those who got in touch emphatically agreed with me."

Perhaps those in the Sugar camp were still trying to get their Amstrad em@iler working.

Cheap shot? Maybe, but mention of the em@iler isn't entirely gratuitous as there appears to be a precedent for this behaviour from Sugar.

In 2001, Sugar reportedly emailed 95,000 owners of the device, urging them to email technology journalist Charles Arthur who had branded the em@iler a flop in an Independent article. Sugar allegedly included Arthur's email address in his message and more than 1,300 customers took advantage.

However, the tactic backfired in the media and Arthur reported that a number of the people who did contact him did so to share their own criticism of the device.

One Amstrad customer emailed Arthur to say:

"I agree with you about the amstrad em@iler this is my 3rd one in 6 months i won't be getting another one,I think they're crap."

Another stated:

"...this is by far the worst product I have bought ever..."

Although it should be said there was positive feedback among the criticism, you'd have thought Sugar might have learned his lesson about putting his critics in touch with other critics.

He should also realise Twitter followers aren't always fans, nor are they there to do his bidding, as must have become clear after calling upon followers to share their opinions today:

...dog wins talent show, now that's news

The old saying goes: "When a dog bites a man, that's not news... But if a man bites a dog, that's news." And you can now add to that "...if a dog wins a talent show, that's news", as today's red tops will confirm:

Holly Willoughby's breasts: A Mail obsession

It's long been known that the Daily Mail only tells us something is bad so they can tell us a week later that it's actually good, then bad, then good, and so on.

Hence red wine is bad for us one week, then good for us the next. It's the kind of oscillating story arc that means the Mail will never be short of a story. And if there's one thing the Mail likes more than easy content, it's pictures of breasts. Put those things together and you get the Mail's recent on/off love affair with Holly Willoughby's cleavage. 

Last weekend Willoughby's breasts were being used as a stick with which to beat the BBC:

By this weekend they had become an award-winning flavour of the month...

Willoughby should probably ignore the Mail next weekend.

Ello, Ello, Ello: Rebekah Brooks faces the neigh sayers

If you didn't know police horse borrower Rebekah Brooks was about to arrive at the Leveson Inquiry you could be forgiven for wondering what was going on outside the Royal Courts of Justice this morning: