Thursday 12 January 2012

Re-heating old quotes for front page news

On the day that Daily Star editor Dawn Neesom was giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry, her paper came up with this front page story:


The Guardian's Media Monkey notes:

Gripping stuff too, as actor Benedict Cumberbatch tells of the terrifying moment he was carjacked in South Africa while filming mini-series To The Ends of the Earth. "The actor, 35, and his pals were ambushed when their car blew a tyre in an isolated spot in South Africa, he revealed for the first time last night." First time? Not quite. 

What the Star omits to mention is that Cumberbatch spoke at length about the 2004 incident in an interview with the Prince's Trust, back in 2010. He also spoke about it in an interview with the Guardian's Weekend magazine, also in, er, 2010

What the Star also omits to mention is that all the quotes it uses today appear to have been lifted - entirely - from an interview published in October 2010.

Despite this, today's splash has also been picked up and repeated by the Mail, Sun, Metro, Telegraph and Mirror.

Neesom told the Inquiry that the front page of her paper has to be as 'eye-catching' as possible so people pick it up on the newsstands. That obviously includes re-heating 15-month-old quotes about an incident from seven years ago.

1 comment:

  1. If I was asking the questions I'd start with "why does every headline of the Star have some sort of out-and-out misleading headline? Such as "Ear slash psycho joins Big Brother house"? In reference to Michael Madsen becoming a BB housemate?"

    ReplyDelete

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