The Daily Mail is well known for running many articles stating that particular things cause or prevent cancer. In some cases, such as alcohol, they apparently do both.
Someone has kindly produced a database so we can be clear on just what does and doesn’t cause cancer according to that newspaper.
Tabloid Watch reveal that the Daily Star have been forced to apologise for the Grand Theft Auto Rothbury farce:
Here’s the very swift, and unusually long, apology, published today:
ROCKSTAR GAMES – GRAND THEFT AUTO – AN APOLOGY
On 21 July we published an article claiming that the video games company Rockstar Games were planning to release a version of their popular Grand Theft Auto video games series titled “Grand Theft Auto Rothbury”.
We also published what we claimed would be the cover of this game, solicited comments from a family member impacted by the recent tragedy and criticised Rockstar Games for their alleged plans.
We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication and did not contact Rockstar Games prior to publishing the story. We also did not question why a best selling and critically acclaimed fictional games series would choose to base one of their most popular games on this horrifying real crime event.
It is now accepted that there were never any plans by Rockstar Games to publish such a game and that the story was false.We apologise for publishing the story using a mock-up of the game cover, our own comments on the matter and soliciting critical comments from a grieving family member.
We unreservedly apologise to Rockstar Games and we have undertaken not to repeat the claims again. We have also agreed to pay them a substantial amount in damages which they are donating to charity.
The admission that they ‘made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication’ is a damning one.
Tabloid Watch: ‘We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication’
Update from The Escapist on the GTA Rothbury story. Apparently, Jerry Lawton ( Daily Star journalist) is surprised at the response to the article he wrote:
“Baffled by the fury of adult gamers,” he wrote. “These are grown (?!?) men who sit around all day playing computer games with one another who’ve today chosen to enter the real world just long enough to complain about my story slamming a Raoul Moat version of Grand Theft Auto! You would think I’d denied the Holocaust!!! Think I’ll challenge them to a virtual reality duel….stab….I win!!!”
Let me remind you that this is a “real journalist” speaking and although the Star is a notoriously trashy rag, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a certain minimal level of integrity in its reporting, even if only to the point of not passing off outright lies as real news and then making fun of people who call them on it. Is that really so baffling, Jerry?
The Escapist : News : “Journalist” Who Wrote Fake GTA Story Ridicules Gamers
Possibly my favourite piece of tabloid hypocrisy ever comes from the Daily Star in 2001. To the right, outrage about Chris Morris’ Brass Eye paedophilia special, a satirical TV show. To the left, readers are encouraged to admire the breasts of a 15 year old girl, captioned “she’s a big girl now”, with the observation that she is looking “chest swell”. A fabulously ironic juxtaposition.
The Brass Eye special generated a moral panic in several tabloids, with government ministers chipping in, notes the Guardian:
Government Ministers condemned the programme, only to admit they hadn’t watched it. The papers which were frothing most exuberantly began quietly shooting themselves in the feet. One Mail splurge on the programme (headed ‘Unspeakably sick’, the words of one of the Ministers who hadn’t watched it) was preceded by close-ups of Princesses Beatrice (13) and Eugenie (11) in their bikinis; in the Star , beside a shock-horror-sicko Morris story, sat a picture of singer Charlotte Church in a tight top (‘She’s a big girl now … chest swell!’). Church is 15.
For a little while, the scandalised Daily Star reported that the massively successful Rockstar Games were bringing out the next in the series of Grand Theft Auto games based on the Raoul Moat case. For some reason, the story is no longer on their site. What piece of internet photoshopping will they be believing next? Bonsai kittens?
and more here, at The Escapist, a gaming site
What does it mean to have no ethnicity? By 2051, four out of every five people should be able to tell you. This post from Tabloid Watch considers issues of representation of race in Richard Desmond’s newspapers:
Do you think Richard Desmond, the owner of these two rags, is trying to telling us something?
Anton at Enemies of Reason has blogged about the Express’ front page. He says:
Leave aside that we’re all ‘ethnics’ of one mongrel sort or another; this makes it quite clear what’s going on. There are whites and there are ‘ethnics’. How much more explicit does it have to be before we start calling it what it is?
As Anton points out, the Express illustrate this ‘vile story’ with this image of Muslim women:
Yet the article, based on population forecasts from the University of Leeds about what might happen in 2051, clearly says:The White British and Irish ethnic groupings are expected to grow very slowly, while the Other White category is projected to grow the fastest, driven by immigration from Europe, the US and Australasia.
Funny how they don’t use pictures of French, American or Australian women, isn’t it?
Tabloid Watch: Richard Desmond attacks ‘ethnics’ and ‘asylum scroungers’:
