The Media Blog

Remember this...

Remember this (right) from November 2012 - the Daily Express warning us to brace ourselves for the "coldest winter in 100 years". 

Cue the unseasonably wet and mild December we have just experienced, with flood warnings and double-figure temperatures of up to 15°C across the UK.

But despite its unrivalled record for telling us what the weather probably won't be doing The Express last month claimed to be "unmatched on faithful and accurate weather updates". The Express cited its prediction of "Arctic weather" as just one example.

The paper even claimed it had been banned from betting on the weather by bookmaker Ladbrokes because of the accuracy of its predictions.

Gamble

Now we're talking. I like a bet and enjoy seeking out the kind of value that can be found taking on a hotly fancied favourite. So with two-thirds of the winter still to go and all to play for I approached Ladbrokes and asked what odds they'd offer me on The Express - the self-proclaimed "oracles of British weather" - being WRONG.

But it turns out I am not about to get rich, because in betting terms, Ladbrokes currently sees it as a near certainty The Express will be wrong about its big winter weather prediction.

Ladbrokes quoted me odds of just 1/66 that this WON'T be the coldest winter in 100 years. That means to win enough money to buy a copy of The Express I would have to bet £33.  

Ladbrokes caution is wise.

The coldest winter on record was 1962-63 when the UK mean temperature was -0.18°C. So far, according to Met Office figures published this week, this winter has seen a mean temperature of 3.8°C.

Top 20 Media Blog posts of 2012

1. They didn't...?: The Liverpool Echo manages one of the worst page layouts we've seen in a very long time.

2. Daybreak viewers: Confused by time... A popular post has become a running joke as Daybreak viewers are consistently confused about ITV+1.

3. Lineker puts the boot in to Daily Star: A retweet from Lineker himself probably helped propel this one to number 3.

4. Sweden v England: The tabloid spat: Sweden's Aftonbladet newspaper took on the British tabloids at their own game during Euro 2012. 

5. An open letter to the BBC: The Media Blog response to critics of the BBC's Jubilee coverage. 

6. Team GB success confuses Express: The Dutch equestrian team gained more publicity than their bronze medals probably deserved.

7. BBC caption fail... An impressive geography fail too for good measure. 

8. Halo: Is it UNSC you're looking for... Another fail for the BBC graphics department...

9. The Sun's awkward Lego giveaway: A very poorly timed toy promotion from The Sun.

10. April Fools: Who got taken in?: The Daily Mail fell for the Mirror's spring prank.

11. A real dead ringer for 'Loaf... The Evening Standard picture desk give everybody a laugh, confusing Barry from Eastenders with rock singer Meatloaf.

12.  Confused yet...? The most convoluted headline of the year. 

13. Horsegate: Rich in innuendo: A story which just kept on giving through 2012.

14. Daily Mail falls for Jordan's sponsored tweets: Katie Price made a fool of the Daily Mail ...read into that what you will.

15. The facts and figures behind Express weather claims: Proof that The Express is more interested in the weather than it is in the truth.

16. Sky News gives Cameron a new nickname: It didn't really stick, but that's not for Sky's want of trying.

17. That's a wrap: Times can hail its front pages a success: The Times Olympics front pages were a triumph of design and increased circulation.

18. Such modesty from the Daily Mail...: The (not so) secret of the Daily Mail's online success.

19. Oops they did it again... ITV News: No stranger to Twitter gaffes.

20. Move over Grauniad: Here comes The Tellygraph: The typo crown of 2012 has undoubtedly been won by the Telegraph.

Top 10 Media Blog posts: July 2009 – July 2012

The Media Blog today turns three years old (hence all the childish humour and occasional tantrums). Over that time a lot of ground has been covered in more than 1,200 blog posts but it's some of the quirkier posts that have typically taken off with readers. That is certainly reflected in the 10 best-read posts from the past three years...

1. No!…no!…no!…no! That'll be the Liverpool Echo, with arguably one of the worst page layouts ever witnessed in the rich history of massively inappropriate headline, picture, caption and story clashes. 

2. The BBC wrestles with social media: You know that moment when you accidentally set your development website live, complete with insults about your readers? Yeah, that…

3. Daybreak viewers get easily confused: The fact Daybreak viewers get confused by ITV +1, to the point they contact the programme via Twitter to tell them their clock is wrong – every single day – has provided hours of amusement. It all started with this post.

4. The wrong Steve Jobs: There are so many spoof Twitter accounts, including a fake Steve Jobs who famously fooled the Daily Mail...

5. A Twitter riot: If the internet has always been good for one thing then it is surely 'blaming stuff on'. Last summer that meant the Daily Mail blaming the London riots on Twitter.

6. "A**e!": Some over-officious censorship at Virgin Media saw all sorts of words getting the asterisk treatment.

7. Newspapers clash off-the-ball: While England and Sweden battled it out on the pitch to decide who was marginally more qualified to get knocked out at the Quarter Final stage of Euro 2012, the two countries’ newspapers fought it out in a series of spoof front pages.

8. Well somebody had to say something: This open letter to the BBC was an attempt to restore some much needed perspective to the debate about the Corporation’s coverage of the Jubilee. Only one person on Twitter didn’t get the joke.

9. Penguins will make kids gay: Over the past three years the Daily Mail has provided more fodder for The Media Blog than any other newspaper, including some odd views on penguins.

10.  When captions attack: The BBC graphics team have given us a few laughs over the years, but this one will take some beating. 

Marr on bloggers: From seedy misfits to very influential

Andrew Marr has never really had much time for blogs and bloggers. In fact you could go so far as to say he has been downright rude about them in the past (so just remember he started this). In October 2010 Marr famously branded bloggers:

"Socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy...bald...young men".

This from a man who in recent years has hardly troubled the judges of the husband of the year competition and might in another era have found himself hounded out of town by angry villagers for his looks.

He continued:

"...so-called citizen journalism is the spewings and rantings of very drunk people late at night. It is fantastic at times but it is not going to replace journalism."

Wind the clock forward a year-and-a-half and Marr's position, shared with the Leveson Inquiry, seems to have changed a little. Far from dismissing them out of hand, now Marr suggests political bloggers at least should be subject to many of the same considerations as journalists: 

"[Bloggers] are a new thing and they are a very influential new thing. A lot of newspapers are picking them up and using them as commentators now. So I think the old distinction between a political player and a would-be political journalist is breaking down. Successful blogs survive by advertising, like newspapers do, so they are not so far away as they might appear."

Ghosts, sharks, rude captions and THAT Diana story... it's June's top 10 posts

1. Telegraph picture editor has Sixth Sense
A ghostly visitor to Wimbledon, or just a bad case of reusing old pictures...?

2. It's what she would have wanted...right?
Newsweek in the US explores news depths of creepiness with this Princess Diana special

3. What do Johann Hari and Britney Spears have in common?
Independent journo caught lifting quotes from other sources... plagiarism or 'lip-synching'?

4. Enough for a whole football team
Ryan Giggs owned the front page of the Daily Star throughout June

5. And now, in other news...
A very unfortunate caption on BBC News...

6. Rihanna or the Queen: Who does the Daily Mail prefer?
Surely they wouldn't put pop stars before royalty, would they...?

7. If anyone knows the words to describe this, it's Gordon Ramsay...
If it looks like a turkey, and it sounds like a turkey... it's probably the chef's big screen debut

8. Infographic: An internet minute
Look at everything that happens every 60 seconds online...

9. The truth behind BBC 'doughnutgate'
Krispy Kontroversy...

10. SHAAARKK!
One of the year's most predictable stories returns to UK waters...

 

May's top Media Blog posts

1. Newspapers and a changing audience
An infographic, outlining the changing nature of newspaper audiences

2. Cat in van shocker
A classic local news story

3. Which papers tweet most efficiently?
Another infographic showing that some newspapers may simply be spinning their wheels with Twitter

4. 'Banned' Imogen Thomas ad gets free run on the Guardian
Bookmaker Paddy Power benefits from the coverage of his latest controversial advert

5. Fox just can't let it go
A most inevitable typo marks the death of Osama bin Laden

6. Injunctions v Twitter: The legal view
Top lawyers discussing the month's most talked about injunction

7. Journalism: Just a numbers game'?
Can the media aspire to quality and quantity?

8. How do I claim mine...?
Free Ai Weiwei... for every readers?

9. Action against superinjunction busters "very viable" ...if Twitter plays ball
More thoughts from the legal community... 

10. Express scoop: Can EU believe it?
A tall tale from the tabloids...

Who the Adele are you?

"SHE might be No 1 in the album charts for a second week..." begins a post about pop-singer Adele on the ooh-ah Daily Star's music blog. "But even super sales won't..."  mean our picture editor knows who the hell she is.

To prove the point, here's a picture of rising pop sensation Jessie J, accompanying the post.

Shocking stuff.

As any fool knows (after a minute or two spent on Wikipedia), 22-year-old London-born singer-songwriter Jessie J is the BBC's Sound of 2011 and a graduate of the BRIT school of performing arts, whereas 22-year-old London-born singer-songwriter Adele was the BBC's Sound of 2008 and a graduate of the BRIT school of performing arts.

They couldn't be more different.  

Apologists for this blunder may claim it is actually an apposite, near-Freudian comment on the over-farmed production line of generic talent that passes through the music charts in this post BRIT, post-X-Factor age. 

But I think the Star just used the wrong picture. 

(Hat tip to Media Blog reader Jeremy Salt for flagging this)

Top 10 posts from the past month

1. Daily Mail: 'Penguins will make kids gay'

2. This headline is just wrong...

3. Melanie Phillips' Quiz of the Day

4. Another triumph for Fox News

5. The media's fickle relationship with "innocent until proven guilty"

6. When using Google Images attacks

7. Sky Sports duo spark sexism row

8. When is a "surge" not a surge?

9. This one time... at St Barts

10. What a Vader make a living...



3am: "We are morons"

You've got to get up pretty early in the morning to catch out the elite team of gossip hacks manning the 3am news desk. And by early we're talking at least 11:55am which is when the following story was timestamped (we'll quote from it rather than link because it's almost certainly about to be taken down. And don't worry if you've no idea who the people mentioned are, this is more about the process than the story itself):

It didn’t take very long for Elen Rivas to ‘sensationally speak out on the exclusive revelations that she’s head over heels in love with singing extraordinaire Peter Andre’. But rather than going along with it... Elen has denied it outright.

No, she hasn't. Because the source of this barrel-scraping tale of celebrity no-marks is a fake Twitter account in the name of Elen Rivas who, should you even care, is apparently the ex of Chelsea footballer Frank Lampard (what next, a fake Twitter account in the name of Theo Walcott's postman?). 

She tweeted: “I am not dating Peter Andre, was told it wouldn't be long before that one cropped up!”

No she didn't, because it's a fake account. 

Elen added...

No she didn't. 

The funny thing is...

I think we all know what the funny thing is.

But to give the 3am team some credit, they did follow up with a message on their own Twitter page (which appears to be genuine), stating:

Yes we now know that Elen Rivas Twitter is a big fat fake. Story changed. We are morons.

For more of the same, see:
Ooops! The Daily Mail falls victim to spoof Steve Jobs iPhone recall Tweet

Top 10 Media Blog posts of 2010

1. BBC calls its own Facebook fans "saddos"

2. Ooops! The Daily Mail falls victim to spoof Steve Jobs iPhone recall Tweet

3. Gazza and Moat: The radio interview

4. ITV News slams Nigella Lawson as unattractive

5. A "first class" performance by Cameron and ITV

6. The Daily Mail song

7. Boston Globe shamed by Hillsborough slur

8. And The Media Hero of 2010 is...

9. Rain with a chance of obscene gestures: Weatherman gives anchor the finger

10. Sun shakes its fist at 'posh wank' scandal

Top 10 Media blunders of 2010

2010 has seen an array of gaffes and blunders by those in and around the UK media, from accidental on-air profanity to social media faux pas. Here we present a top 10, starting at number 10:

10. Still, could be worse, she could have been singing...
Pop star Cheryl Cole is knocking on the door of national treasure status nowadays, so when she broke wind on live television during the X Factor, it probably smelled of roses.  

9. With obscenity over much of the country...
BBC weatherman Tomasz Schafernaker was enjoying a joke with the newsreaders in the studio when he decided to try his hand at a little sign language. Unfortunately he was caught on camera. 

8. Nigella? I've seen better...
Just this week the official @ITV_News Twitter stream told us that Nigella Lawson is not as fit as she thinks she is. Big news indeed. We think somebody logged into the wrong account. 

7. 'Social media is for saddos'...
According to the BBC, everybody who uses Facebook is "a saddo". According to web developers you should always use dummy text when testing a new website and never develop on a live site.   

6. Who dropped the C-bomb...
Part 1: The BBC turned the airwaves blue earlier this month when first James Naughtie and then Andrew Marr accidentally mispronounced culture secretary Jeremy Hunt's name, swiching the 'H' in Hunt for a 'C'. Part 2: During the General Election ITV News showed screenshots from Facebook of people discussing the Leaders debates. One poster in particular was no fan of David Cameron.

5. A Dyer attempt at ghost writing
Ghost written columns are a mainstay of the UK media but one went badly wrong earlier this year when Danny Dyer's advice column in Zoo went a little too far and advised a reader to take a knife to his ex girlfriend's face. Dyer was probably as surprised as anybody to see that moronic piece of advice in print.

4. Imaginary computer game causes outrage
Back in July the Daily Star wrote a totally fictitious story about a violent video game based on the final days of the murderer Raoul Moat. The source of the story had been a poor taste joke in an online chatroom. The Star later issued an embarrassing apology, admitting no attempt had been made to verify its story.

3. Ill-advised World Cup jolly...
Guardian writer Louise Taylor clearly had a wonderful trip to Qatar as the guest of the emirate's World Cup delegation. Unfortunately the one-sided piece of marketing puff which resulted from the trip brought much criticism upon The Guardian for its poor judgement in 1) publishing the piece, and 2) taking an uncomfortable length of time to admit Taylor's trip had been a jolly. 

2. Ill-advised World Cup coverage...
The only team to perform worse than England at the 2010 World Cup was the ITV Sport team. From Edgar Davids' ambush marketing to Robbie Earle's disappearing ticket allocation, the broadcaster staggered from one blunder to the next. The low point however, was undoubtedly the broadcaster's failure to show England's first goal in the competition, choosing instead to show an advert on its HD channel. 

1. But he said his name was Steve Jobs...
Not everything you read is true. You'd imagine the Daily Mail would know that better than anybody but one of the paper's legion of reporters was fooled this year by a spoof Twitter account in the name of Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple. The Twitter account clearly admitted to be being a spoof, but when it claimed iPhones were being recalled, the Mail took the story and ran with it.

What have we missed? Think something else should have been on this list? Email us and let us know.

Vote for your Media Hero & Villain

Below is the shortlist of individuals and organisations most commonly selected by readers of TheMediaBlog.co.uk for our Media Hero and Villain Of The Year awards. Read the nominations of fellow Media Blog readers and then have your say by voting, via the link at the bottom of this post - voting closes at midnight, Friday 17 December. 

The Heroes:

• Private Eye: For proving it is still possible for print publications to grow circulation through a commitment to quality editorial.
• Julian Assange: For "showing the power of the open internet", according to readers, and failing to be cowed by the threats of governments with a vested interest in silencing Wikileaks' revelations.
• Mitch Benn: He's proud of the BBC and reminded us all this year why we should be too.
• Dan & Dan: The brilliant 'Daily Mail Song' became a web sensation and perfectly satirised the editorial obsessions of the UK's most discussed newspaper.
• MyDavidCameron.com: This social media phenomenon was a creative, crowd-sourced victory for satire and humour that left traditional media playing catch-up.
• BBC 6Music Listeners: The online campaign to save 6Music not only advertised the plight of the station, it recruited enough new listeners to save it. You can't buy advertising like that.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE NOW

The Villains:

• The Press Complaints Commission: It sadly comes as no surprise when newspapers break their codes of conduct but the toothless nature of the industry's watchdog is both a cause for concern and a poor advert for self-regulation.
• Alex Beam: Poorly written and researched, an article by the Boston Globe columnist criticised the friends and families of those who died in the Hillsborough stadium disaster. If the content wasn't insulting enough, the total failure of professionalism was a dark day for journalism.
• John Witherow & AA Gill: BBC presenter Clare Balding understandably took offence when described as a 'Dyke on a Bike' by Gill and her offence was compounded when his editor, Witherow offered the clumsiest of defences.
• David Cameron: The Prime Minister has barely concealed his dislike of the BBC or his plans to limit its powers in favour of commercial, more on-message competitors. It came to a head when he described job cuts at the BBC as "delicious".
• FIFA: It's quite plausible, of course, that England failed in its bid to host the World Cup because the bid simply wasn't good enough. However, Football's world governing body has made no secret of its distaste for an independent media unwilling to bend to the will of political and commercial interests. 
• Panorama: The BBC's flagship current affairs programme raised eyebrows and ire when it further exposed the levels of corruption within Fifa on the eve of its vote on who would win the World Cup. The programme was branded "an embarrassment" by England's bid team. 
   

CLICK HERE TO VOTE NOW

Name the Media Hero & Villain of 2010

It's been another turbulent 12 months in the media and for the second year running The Media Blog is calling for nominations for your Media Hero and Villain Of The Year. It could be an individual, an organisation or a publication or broadcaster.

Just drop us an email, or post a comment below with your suggestions and a brief line on why they deserve either award (unless it's screamingly obvious). We will then create a shortlist and throw it open to a public vote in time to announce the winners before the end of the year.

In last year's awards the Hero crown was won by The Telegraph for its relentless exposure of abuses of Commons expenses, while the Villain of the year was Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir for her poisonous piece about the death of pop star Stephen Gately. Big shoes to fill.

Emma Watson, Louis Walsh, X Factor... it's the top Media Blog posts this week

1. Hermione casts a spell on newspaper editors

2. What next for Louis Walsh, the X Factor's cultural ambassador?

3. Masterchef: Remixed

4. Update: 'I'm a Celebrity' contestants reviewed

5. So X Factor was ‘fixed’… should we care?

6. Eamonn Holmes: Man of the people

7. Full time fact-Trekker needed...

8. @StephenFry quits Twitter… again?

9. Old alcohol bad, new alcohol good?

10. If you only go on one 'trianing' course this year...

X-Factor, 'Rocky' Robinson, 'Proud of the BBC' ...top 10 Media Blog posts this week

1. The X Factor effect on iTunes

2. Nick Robinson: Come and have a go if you think your placard's enough

3. Bit of a long shot... 

4. Mitch Benn: Proud Of The BBC

5. Andrew Marr dislikes bloggers... and bald, spotty, single, ugly people

6. If the CAPS fit?

7. ...though they do say so themselves

8. Sugar adds spice to Twitter

9. Censor sensibility: She said WHAT!?

10. Kelly Brook naked? There's NOT an app for that*

(*We suspect the popularity of certain search terms is responsible for a lot of persistent Google traffic to this particular post from the archives.)

Andrew Marr dislikes bloggers... and bald, spotty, single, ugly people

Andrew Marr doesn't like bloggers:

"A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed, young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting ...the so-called citizen journalism is the spewings and rantings of very drunk people late at night."

I'm not sure why somebody's age, gender, marital status or physical appearance is relevant to their ability to do a job (Marr, let's be honest, is no Adonis). In fact, his comments are somewhat at odds with the BBC's own statement on equal opportunites:

"The BBC is committed to promoting equal opportunities for all, irrespective of colour, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origins, gender, marital/civil partnership status, sexuality, disability or age."

...Just don't be a bald, single, spotty young man if you want to work with Andrew Marr because he's having none of it.

Media law survey: Please help

We've received an email from reader Judith Townend, formerly of Journalism.co.uk, now studying for an MA, asking if she could enlist some help from fellow Media Blog readers. 

We'll let Judith explain. She writes: 

For many trained journalists, working for well-resourced organisations they might be able to consult an in-house lawyer when occasion rises. But for independent online publishers and bloggers who also play an increasingly big part on the UK news scene there's unlikely to be the money for legal advice. 

So what happens when there's not an in-house lawyer on hand to answer questions? Do bloggers without journalistic accreditation find it difficult to access certain information? What UK media laws should an online publisher consider - and do they need reform? 

It was issues like these that I want to address in my MA project (the findings of which will influence my forthcoming MPhil / PhD research at City University London's new Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism). 

As part of my research I have set up this short survey. If you're UK-based and write for a small - or your own - site, please take five minutes to answer some questions. 

So go on, take a few minutes to help Judith out, and we're hoping, if we ask nicely she'll share the findings with us here.

Top 10 MediaBlog posts from last week

Our top 10 this week has a distinctly 'silly season' flavour to it. Bear with us while we all wait for the media world to right itself in a few weeks time, and in the meantime, why not enjoy these again...

1. Rain with a chance of obscene gestures: BBC Weatherman gives anchor the finger

2. The week ahead: In pictures

3. Kelly Brook naked? There's NOT an app for that

4. Reporter vs ice sculpture: Fail or fake?

5. So... what happened in the BT ad?

6. Great Times paywall deal: pay £1 for a page you can read for free...

7. Big Chill? "Wanky Balls" more like

8. Crumbs! FT journos aren't very mouseproud

9. iPad: Is the honeymoon over?

10. We Herts letters pages

Top 10 Media Blog posts of the past week

1. Sun shakes its fist at 'posh wank' scandal

2. Sexist! Racist! Non-existent Foreign Office ban on middle-class white males

3. Emmerdale 'sorry' about jam rags and pile cream

4. Let's not forget who first cracked 'Brokeback' gag

5. Daily Star: "FURY" erupts over made-up story

6. Shock findings: Men don't fancy ring-tailed lemurs

7. Is there anything good on television tonight Mr Desmond?

8. Is Jacqui Smith the right person for the BBC Trust?

9. Photojournalism isn't dead... it just smells funny?

10. Daily Mail's moral compass not for turning?

Telegraph cries foul over Wikileaks' 'Lefty bias'

The Telegraph's Will Heaven has reacted angrily to The Guardian getting the scoop on Wikileaks' war logs:

"Wikileaks is a website with no political agenda, its founder Julian Assange would have you believe. So I'm puzzled by today’s "Afghanistan war log" story. It doesn’t strike me – or many of my colleagues – as politically neutral to feed such sensitive information to three Left-leaning newspapers: namely The Guardian, The New York Times, and Der Spiegel."

To be fair, Heaven may well have a point but it would be easy for readers to assume his comments owe more to professional sour grapes than genuine concern about Wikileaks' political neutrality.