The Media Blog

Media Blog Awards of 2011

Here are The Media Blog's very unofficial end of year awards...

'Scoop Of The Year' 2011:
The New Statesman wins one of the few honourable awards in this rundown of 2011's highs and lows for Hugh Grant's sting on former News Of The World journalist Paul McMullan (The Bugger Bugged, April 2011). Nick Davies' leg work over at The Guardian won him Media Hero Of The Year for 2011, but Grant's one article did much to take the phone hacking story to a whole new level. It was the second time Grant had met McMullan and the actor took advantage of an open invitation to visit McMullan's pub in Kent, when asked by New Statesman guest editor Jemima Khan to come up with some content for her issue. From the pictures below, it's clear which one was taken when Hugh Grant knew payback for the deeds of McMullan and his tabloid peers and employers was imminent:

 

The 'Non-Story Of The Year' 2011:
2011 was the year when the Daily Mail's pursuit of the BBC stretched as far as making up a story about a BBC-wide ban on the use of AD and BC dates. The Mail desperately flogged this particular dead horse over the course of multiple articles, to the embarrassment of all onlookers. 

 

The 'Media Blunder of the Year' 2011:
It's been a year of blunders but none was bigger or more widely relished than the Daily Mail publishing an entirely fictitious article about Amanda Knox losing her appeal against murder - the problem, Knox actually won her appeal and cleared her name. This minor detail didn't stop the Mail reporting:

Amanda Knox looked stunned this evening after she dramatically lost her prison appeal against her murder conviction...As Knox realized the enormity of what judge Hellman was saying she sank into her chair sobbing uncontrollably while her family and friends hugged each other in tears.

None of which happened of course. 
Highly Commended: Exposure (ITV), BBC graphics department spices up the local news. 

 

The 'Phone It In' Award for Uninspired Editorship:
This year the Daily Star lead with Ryan Giggs on its front page on 14 consecutive days, with a story many people were tired of even before the papers were allowed to report it. Highly Commended: The Daily Express for its heavy rotation of "miracle cures", health scares and weather related 'news'.

The 'Johann Hari Award' for Misleading Readers 2011:
This year Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips truly excelled herself with an article about how penguins could turn children gay. She topped-up this level of apparent stupidity with her continued insistence that Muslims have made us all celebrate "Winterval" and perpetuating the nonsense about the BBC banning AD and BC. Highly Commended: Johann Hari. 

 

Hypocrite of The Year 2011:
Not content with being the editor of The Sun who presided over that paper's most hateful and hurtful dalliance with fiction, MacKenzie actually picked this year to start lecturing others about ethics. To add insult to injury he even claimed Rupert Murdoch was the real victim of the phone hacking scndal. Fortunately most people stopped listening to MacKenzie many years ago.

 

The 'Utter Nonsense' Award 2011:
Despite writing for a mature and well educated audience it seems The Telegraph still lives in fear of printing swear words that might offend its delicate readers. That's all well and good, of course until a story comes along about which swear words people can or can't say to the police. At that point the Telegraph published a story which claimed:

"Courts do not accept that police officers are caused harassment, alarm or distress by words such as ----, ----, -------, or ------." 

If you say so.

 

The 'My Eyes! My Eyes!' Award for Horror 2011:
If you ever wanted to be haunted by the image of Daily Mail columnist Liz Jones stealing sperm from a discarded condom and trying to inseminate herself on the bathroom floor, then November held a real treat in store. If however you're a well adjusted human being then it was probably one of the most awful things you've ever read. Highly Commended: The infamous dancing end credits from BBC's This Week. 

 

'TV Low Point of the Year' 2011:
Put Matthew Wright and Channel 5 together for any length of time and the end product is bound to be crass and awful, but at least relatively few people are watching. However, when Amanda Knox was cleared of murder and Wright decided to ask viewers if they'd still have sex with Knox - during a section called 'Foxy Knoxy: Would ya?" they managed to plumb an all new low: 

Highly Commended: Red Or Black, Channel 4 Athletics, Celebrity Big Brother.  

 

TV Presenter Of The Year 2011:
Matt Baker did a lot to raise money for Sport Relief this year but he will be best remembered as the presenter who asked David Cameron how he can sleep at night. Anybody who thinks this was scripted would do well to listen to Alex Jones, his co-presenter, and her sudden intake of breath when he asks the question:

 

The 'David Mitchell Award For Over-Saturation on TV:
Anybody channel hopping on a Friday or Saturday night could be forgiven for thinking some horrific accident had robbed Britain of all comic talent except for affable Geordie Sarah Milican. The only other explanation is that there is more than one Sarah Milican. Special Commendation: David Mitchell.

 

TV Ad of the Year 2011:
Nando's inspired, though slightly controversial advert featuring an array of dead dictators certainly got noticed around the world despite originally being made for the South African market:

Media Hero & Villain of 2011... revealed

It's time to reveal who Media Blog readers have voted as their Media Hero and Villain of 2011 - a year dominated by the issue of phone hacking.

 

Media Hero Of The Year:

1st: Nick Davies - The Guardian journalist was shortlisted for this award in 2009 when he first lifted the lid on phone hacking at the News Of The World. Since then he has worked tirelessly to uncover the full extent of a scandal which has been the dominant media story of 2011. It should be noted that during the voting period for this award Davies was criticised by News International employees past and present, after doubts emerged as to whether the News Of The World was indeed responsible for deleting certain voicemails from Milly Dowler's phone, as Davies had initially alleged. However, this criticism appears not to have affected the voting, not least because the point stood that Dowler's phone, along with many hundreds of others had been hacked by people acting for the News Of The World, as exposed by Davies.

2nd: Tom Watson MP - Watson has lead the charge in Westminster to make Rupert and James Murdoch answerable for the phone hacking scandal which took place on their watch.

3rd: Hugh Grant - Grant's extraordinary New Statesman article helped push the phone hacking scandal into the mainstream. The actor exposed the methods of News Of The World reporter Paul McMullan using a hidden dictaphone.

 

Media Villain Of The Year:

1st: Rupert Murdoch - As far as voters were concerned 'The buck stops here' for phone hacking, at the very top of the News International tree. Given the chance to give his side of the story in Westminster, Murdoch said "people I trusted let me down, and I think they betrayed the company", but the public clearly sees things differently and feels Murdoch must shoulder the blame for what happened at his company, carried out by people in his employ.

2nd: Rebekah Brooks - Brooks' initial refusal to resign and her attitude - described as "arrogant" during an angry exchange with staff - while the News Of The World died of shame did little to rescue a reputation inextricably linked with a period of scandal at News International.

3rd: James Murdoch - Murdoch Junior's defence appears to rely on his ignorance about much that took place at News International, including claims that he did not read in detail a key email which undermined the 'one rogue reporter' defence.

OMG: When news graphics go bad

Keen-eyed viewers of a Norwegian evening news bulletin on Wednesday noticed that an eyechart used to illustrate an item about eye tests contained a series of well-known acronyms such as OMG, WTF, STFU and phrases such as pwn3d. According to reports, a producer for the programme, Dagsrevyen, admitted the picture was a mistake, having sourced an eyechart from a picture agency:

However, in the inappropriate graphics stakes it has some way to go before it beats this effort from BBC News South East earlier this year when captioning a story about a jobs blow to the Kentish economy:

Apology: Daily Mail and Daily Express

This morning, people across Britain are waking up to a mild Christmas morning without fresh snow. We should point out this was accurately predicted by both the Daily Mail and the Daily Express.

As such it is only right that The Media Blog apologises to both newspapers for laughing at their recent weather predictions. That includes laughing when both newspapers, just days before the above predictions of no snow, also predicted a White Christmas.

The Media Blog now accepts that taking both predictions, from both newspapers, into account they were in fact both right.

And would have been if it had snowed as well.

Daily Mail exposes own readers to C-word tirade... about the Daily Mail

The Daily Mail has used a YouTube video on one of its stories which captures a phone interview with a BBC reporter that was dramatically cut short by the Christchurch earthquake.

Unfortunately for the Mail, it contains a few captions which appear to have been added once the person who posted the clip realised their video had been used by the Mail.

Here are the captions exactly as they appeared on the Daily Mail's own website (be warned they contain the C-word... though it is about Richard Littlejohn):

You can watch the original clip here. (Hat tip David Walsh)

Daily Mail in 'Argie-bargy' meltdown

Every once in a while the Daily Mail gets bored of pretending it doesn't just make stuff up and instead glories in the fact that's exactly what it's up to in a series of "What if..." articles intended to stir fear and baseless racism among its more suggestible readers. Today's piece imagines a fictional scenario in 2012 when Argentina (the "Argies") have reclaimed the Falklands after a second war with Britain which will see Prince Harry captured and scores of soldiers killed:

By "terrifying plausible account" of course they mean "batshit crazy work of fiction" but I imagine Dominic Sandbrook is even now buying in tinned food and bottled water, just in case.

Telegraph in 'must blame the BBC' shocker

It's well known The Telegraph will bend over backwards to shoehorn criticism of the BBC into even the most tenuous of stories, but blaming the Beeb for editing Jonathan Ross's ITV chat show seems a stretch too far:

It's not like The Telegraph can claim it missed Ross's high profile departure from the BBC. They certainly wrote enough stories about it. (Hat tip David Walsh.)

See also:
Tim Minchin cries foul over ITV censorship

 

Tim Minchin cries foul over ITV censorship

Comedian and musician Tim Minchin has been unceremoniously dumped from Jonathan Ross's Christmas chat show after a song he performed at the recording was deemed to be offensive as it compared Jesus to Woody Allen:

Minchin has written a detailed blog post about the situation. Jonathan Ross has also come out against the decision saying it was out of his hands.

Must... have... Christmas... angle

The Telegraph's Harry Wallop has rightly taken issue today with this bizarre press release from the FSA which has woven a nativity angle into a comment about livestock feed:

The text reads:

Christmas cards, school plays, and church nativity scenes typically portray images of a manger surrounded by farm animals in the centre of a hay-strewn barn. But, while the religious message that has lasted two millennia continues to inspire Christians across the globe, the sheep and oxen (and their modern counterpart the cow) are no longer sustained on a diet of grass and hay.

Daily Mail is missing Jesus

If you were thinking about sending a Christmas card to the Daily Mail, don't bother, they'll only moan about it unless there's a little baby Jesus on the front, as they have done today...

And did last year...

And back in 2006...

It seems Godless Christmas cards are the new 'Winterval'.

(Hat tip TabloidWatch and Tim Ireland)

The man who slipped on the ice

There's nothing the television news like more than some footage of people slipping on the ice to bring a snow story to life, but has anybody ever thought what life must be like for the individuals who become a national laughing stock. This wonderful - and very funny - film sheds some light on the issue:

Press release fail

A great spot here from Press Gazette and a late contender for worst press release of the year:

The University of York, City of York Council chiefs and representatives from Safer York Partnership have joined forces to tackle alcohol related disorder in York.

A worthwhile initiative, so what's the news?

Key figures from each of the organisations got together for an 'ideas sandpit' to develop innovative solutions to the issues associated with alcohol disorder.

Excuse me? An "ideas sandpit"? What in the name of all that's holy is an "ideas sandpit"?

The ideas sandpit – essentially a brain storming exercise...

Oh right, why didn't you just say?

...was led by Professor Kiran Fernandes, of the University's York Management School, who was part of a team that modelled gun crime in Manchester and tested approaches that could be used by police to significantly reduce the number of incidents.

OK, so what's the news?

Professor Fernandes said: "The goal of the ideas sandpit was to bring this highly diverse team of stakeholders together to develop models that can be used to handle alcohol-related disorder in York. The ideas sandpit has improved understanding of the issue between social scientists, crime analysis and operational policing."

OK, so what's the news?

Participants heard first hand from local residents the impact that alcohol related disorder was having on their lives and on their local communities, before discussing what could be done to improve the situation by all the agencies involved.

Don't make me ask again. You've sent out a press release, there must be some news...

Tracey Carter, Assistant Director, City of York Council, said: "It was really moving to hear how much this issue is impacting people's lives. But by working together, we did come up with some potential solutions, which I hope we will be able to develop and implement over the coming months."

Got you. But what's the news?

The outcomes and ideas from the session will be evaluated and developed before being rolled out to key areas across the city.

Oh.

Telegraph gets to the bottom of the Middletons

One of the biggest media stories of the spring was undoubtedly Pippa Middleton having a bottom. The Mail and the Telegraph in particular have continued to find this a most newsworthy fact throughout the year to the point that the Telegraph has now actually reduced Pippa and her sister to nothing more than a pair of bottoms, as this caption from today shows: 

  

Virgin Media's 'censorship gone mad'

Some Virgin Media TV customers may have noticed the company apparently censoring content in its menu and guide screens over the weekend. The censorship went as far as censoring the name of London football club Arsenal on Match Of The Day 2:

And it doesn't stop there. Will Smith movie Hancock became HanC**k:

And classic Hitchcock movie The 39 Steps also got the same treatment (thanks to Gerry P for the screengrab):

As has Never Mind the Buzzcocks (hat tip @GeorgiTheBug):

Meanwhile it seems Dickens is not welcome either... an unfortunate state of affairs for Christmas (hat tip @GeorgiTheBug and @Telectroscope):

There were also some asterisks for pop star Jarvis Cocker (hat tip The Mirror):

It seems this censorship was the result of an automated setting. A statement from Virgin Media (sent to Tim Bradshaw at the FT) explained:

"Over the weekend a temporarily over-zealous profanity checker took offence at certain programme titles. The altered titles have been swiftly an*lysed and we're fixing any remaining glitches."

"An*lysed"? The jokers.

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Is Keys and Gray "banter" all it seems?

Are former Sky Sports presenters Richard Keys and Andy Gray hawking themselves around the after-dinner speaker circuit?

A flyer (right), claims the pair, who left their jobs at Sky Sports following a series of sexist revelations, are now offering 45-minutes of "quality banter... just like the old days". It has been picked up by the Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Telegraph and subsequently other outlets such as this very blog and shared by hundreds of others across Twitter.

But there seems to be some confusion...

Richard Keys' Talksport Twitter feed, run on behalf of Andy Gray and Richard Keys, has come out to deny they have any involvement in this promotion:

The Media Blog has contacted the named promoter and TalkSport in an attempt to clarify the situation.

UPDATE: First to respond has been Richard Keys, via Twitter:

Curiouser and curiouser...

Irony alert: Mail warns on celebrity obsession

An interesting news story here from the Daily Mail:

That article is of course accompanied online in the Mail's right-hand column by the usual high-quality news reporting... with hardly a trace of mind-rotting celebrity tittle-tattle:

Scrolling further down the right hand column you can find a balance of news which includes eveything from an article about Gisele Bundchen in her knickers to a hard hitting piece about Kelly Brook in her knickers. And if that's not enough for you, there's a well researched investigative piece about Lindsay Lohan wearing no knickers and a celebrity fitness guru in a wet T-shirt.

Kelvin MacKenzie on ethics and justice... really?

Former editor of The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie has hit out at The Guardian and investigative reporter Nick Davies in light of suggestions the News Of The World merely hacked Milly Dowler's voicemail but may not have deleted any messages as The Guardian had originally reported:

MacKenzie begins:

"Welcome to the world of journalism, Nick Davies. So the cops in Surrey told you the story was true... But there was a problem... The Milly Dowler story... was untrue: there is no evidence to show that the News of the World deleted Milly's voicemails."

Anybody familiar with Kelvin MacKenzie's career will no doubt hear the twin alarm bells of irony and hypocrisy chiming loudly as he attempts to take the high ground on issues such as editorial accuracy, ethics and accountability.

It has been 22 years since MacKenzie presided over The Sun's entirely fictitious claims about the Hillsborough disaster. And while we know The Guardian's source was Surrey Police, as MacKenzie reminds us, he has never been so forthcoming about whose account of Hillsborough he based his paper's "malicious lies" upon.

MacKenzie continues:

"So what price has Nick Davies paid... None at all. Not suspended. Not sacked. What price... Alan Rusbridger... You might think they’d call an emergency Board meeting, and sling him out for a mistake of this magnitude."

It was a full five years after his Hillsborough 'exclusive' that MacKenzie finally left The Sun. You'd have thought they'd call an emergency Board meeting in the immediate aftermath, and sling him out for a mistake of that magnitude, but no, Murdoch actually gave him another, albeit shortlived job, elsewhere in the empire.

Which at least explains his loyalty to Murdoch:

"There are other victims of this reporting scandal. Rupert Murdoch is one of them... I happen to know that Rupert was a reduced man because of Dowler. At 81 he still has remarkable energy but the whole affair had exhausted him, and continues to exhaust."

Spare a thought then for the families of 96 football fans who have been campaigning for 22 years now to get honest answers and a meaningful apology out of Kelvin MacKenzie and Rupert Murdoch.

Imagine how exhausting that must be.

Fake pictures you say...?

The Mirror is getting itself very worked up about the BBC using some polar bear footage filmed in captivity to complement a scene from Frozen Planet, but it's not like Attenborough was claiming pretend polar bears had taken a fake wee on a phony prisoner.

BBC iPlayer with 3G streaming on your iPhone

The BBC has today launched a free iPlayer app for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. And the good news for commuters is that it runs like a dream over 3G due to some technical tinkering. In the BBC's own words:

"We have worked closely with the network operators to introduce 3G streaming and create a great mobile experience so you can watch your favourite TV programme wherever you are or listen to the radio when you are out and about.

"We have also done a lot of work to improve the playback experience on portable devices and have rolled out HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) video infrastructure for the apps, which uses adaptive bitrate technologies.This enables us to detect the strength of your Wi-Fi or 3G connection and serve the appropriate video quality."

So now you know.

The streaming of BBC channels (television and radio) appears to run with a lag of about 30 to 40 seconds behind the true live broadcast, though the quality makes such a delay a price worth paying. There is also a full choice of catch-up options, including flagship content such as Frozen Planet: 

(Screenshot of Frozen Planet playing over 3G on an iPhone)

According to the BBC, its iPlayer app which has been available for the iPad since February this year has already been installed on 1.5 million devices. It has also been installed on 1.2 million Android phones in the same time.

PR stunt sleeps with the fishes

News reaches us from down under regarding a PR stunt which went tragically, predictably wrong, leaving recipients feeling perhaps as though they were on the receiving end of some kind of mafia threat.

After all, what you think if somebody sent you a dead fish in the post? 

That's what happened in Australia recently when a company called Adavantage SA sent out 55 live goldfish in bowls to media agencies. Sadly, upon arrival 50 of the fish had perished, prompting one recipient to comment: "We get a deluge of gifts this time of year, although not all smell quite as bad." 

Karen Raffen, CEO of Advantage SA, told local radio: "We offer our sincere apologies. There was absolutely no intention to cause distress or harm to the fish."