The Star's misleading X Factor splash

The front page of Tuesday's Daily Star splashed with the headline 'Cops raid X Factor star's home' next to a large photo of Simon Cowell:

The picture caption describes Cowell as 'shocked'.

But contrary to the very strong impression given by that front page, the 'star' whose home was raided was not Cowell.

The 'star' in question was, in fact, Ella Henderson who was on the show last year. Yet it wasn't, it seems, even her home:

Police were last night quizzing the parents of The X Factor star Ella Henderson on suspicion of money-laundering...

Singer-songwriter Ella, 17, who shot to stardom in last year’s series of the ITV1 talent show, currently lives in London and is working on her debut album. She was not available for comment yesterday.

But Cowell was still 'shocked', wasn't he?

A spokesman for SyCo declined to comment on the Hendersons’ arrest.

'We cannot get ahead of ourselves'

The front page of Wednesday's Express 'revealed' that a '3p blood pressure pill beats dementia':

The headline on the online version of the article is slightly different: '3p pill cuts dementia risk by half'.

This story emerges from the launch, rather than the completion, of a four-year trial of losartan. The lead researcher, Dr Pat Kehoe, told Sense About Science:

"While we certainly have an attractive drug candidate both from the point of view of possible effect and the low cost, we cannot get ahead of ourselves here or over simplify things - we still have to conduct the study to generate the proper evidence before we can make any claims as to how useful the drug will be."

Pregnancy 'news' round up

Most of the tabloid newspapers put yet more royal baby news on their front pages on 6 March:

 

The Sun's front page makes it very clear - the Duchess of Cambridge was handed a teddy bear and said:

"Thank you, I will take that for my d...for my baby"

The same quote was used elsewhere.

Two days later and the Mail published a follow-up:

She didn't? With the help of a video of the incident, the Mail reveals that she actually said:

"Is this for us? Awww, thank you so much, it's [very] very sweet of you"

In other words: not much like what was originally reported. Curiously, this didn't make the front pages.

Meanwhile, in other 'pregnancy news', the Daily Star ran the headline 'Mystery of 'pregnant' star Cheryl Cole' on its front page on Saturday.

Here's what happened: a pregnant woman went to see Cheryl Cole in concert. 'So nice to see lovely @CherylCole', she tweeted. Cheryl replied: 'Nice to see you too, you look amazing pregnant'.

The 'mystery' is that anyone thought this meant Cheryl was pregnant, or that this was worthy of a place on the front page of a paper.

'At no time did one of the doors open'

Today, the Mail's website has reported:

The article by Tom Kelly begins:

A British tourist told yesterday of his flight of terror when he claims an emergency exit on a super jumbo blew open at 27,000ft.

David Reid and his son Lewis feared a bomb had gone off after hearing a ‘massive explosion’ two hours into their flight on the brand new £250million Emirates Airbus A380.

Freezing air blasted in and the cabin pressure plunged after the door in business class came an inch and a half ajar, leaving a gaping hole, said Mr Reid.

The comments under the story are extremely revealing as the vast majority debunk claims made in the article.

For example, in the image shown above, the Mail claims that the:

Door indicator shows green for open instead of red for closed.

But this is wrong for two reasons. A green light on a door indicator would indicate the door is closed - after all, an open door would be the dangerous thing, and danger is usually highlighted with red.

Secondly, it's not a door indicator light anyway. It's an 'Attendant Indication Panel'. As someone called Flyboy88, who says he works on these aircraft, says in the comments:

that light actually means there is a passenger call bell or a phone call to that doors inter phone.

Another comment, from someone claiming to be a pilot, says:

Ok speaking as an A380 pilot, I have to say this article is almost laughable in almost every sense.

1) The picture showing the "door indicator" is actually the passenger call indicator indicating that someone was obviously so bothered by this that they wanted a Gin and Tonic.

2) If a door had "blown" as the article had suggested, do you think with an approximate pressure differential between inside and outside of 8.5 PSI that a blanket would stop everyone from being sucked out?

3) I would love to know how you can hide under an A380 jumpseat, there is barely enough room to keep a lifejacket there.

4) There is no curtain between Economy and Business class, they are separated by....... a floor. This was nothing more than a leaky seal in a door and the blankets were for passenger comfort on a short (2.5 hour flight).

I think Mr Reid needs a groundschool refresher of basic physics and leaves the operating of these multi-million pound aircraft to the professionals.

- Bus Driver, Reading, United Kingdom, 16/2/2013 6:01

The allegations in the article are from someone who:

claims he suffered a chest infection following the ordeal

The Mail seems to have believed his version of events, without questioning them or his possible motives. He also claims:

Freezing air blasted in and the cabin pressure plunged

But, as many of the comments point out, it would be very odd if air 'blasted in' at 27,000ft. And if the cabin pressure 'plunged' the oxygen masks would have deployed, yet this is not mentioned anywhere in the article.

It seems odd, too, that none of the other passengers - who were apparently 'weeping in panic' - seems to have come forward to support the claims made in this Mail article.

There are two quotes at the end of the article which say:

An Emirates spokesman said: ‘We can confirm there was a whistling noise emanating from one of the doors on the A380 upper deck on flight EK384 between Bangkok and Hong Kong on Monday, February 11. At no point was the safety of the flight in jeopardy.’

An Airbus spokesman said: ‘It is not possible for a cabin door to open on an A380 or on any aircraft whilst in flight, as doors open inwards and have locking mechanisms.’

By 2:30pm, there were over 600 comments on the article, and most of them were very critical of the Mail and its fact-checking. But they didn't correct or edit it in response - instead, they gave it even more prominence on their homepage and made it top story:

It seems accuracy has lost out to numbers of visitors as the most important thing about this story as far as MailOnline is concerned.

At 3:07pm, the Mail updated the story, adding a further quote from an Emirates airline spokesman:

'At no time during the flight did one of the upper deck doors open. There was also no loss in cabin pressurisation at any time during the flight.

'The noise from the door was caused by a small dimensional difference between the inflated door seal and the door lower frame striker plate, when the door is in the closed position. This is currently under investigation in conjunction with Airbus. Emirates have now fixed the problem.

'The blankets were placed around the door to abate the whistling sound emanating from the door, not to prevent the door from opening.

'There was no point during the incident where the safety of the flight was in jeopardy.

'In addition, the green light next to the door does not represent that the door is open. It is an Attendant Indication Panel and is used for communication information for the Cabin Crew.'

Despite this latest update, the rest of the article - including the photos claiming the green light shows the door is 'open' - remains uncorrected.

(Hat-tip to Martin)

'Corrections must be given more prominence'

The main headline on the front page of the Mail on 3 January stated there were '4,000 foreign murderers and rapists we can't throw out':

The first line of the story underneath proved the headline wasn't literally true:

Nearly 4,000 foreign murderers, rapists and other criminals are roaming the streets, free to commit more crimes.

A factcheck by the excellent Full Fact concluded:

After Full Fact contacted the UKBA, they confirmed that no published breakdown is available for the types of offences these people served a sentence for. Such information could be obtained by a freedom of information request, but no such requests seem to have been made.

So while we know that there are just under 4,000 foreign national offenders living in the community subject to deportation, there's no evidence as to how many of these are guilty of the offences being suggested. This doesn't sit well with the Mail's headline

Perhaps inevitably, then, there's a clarification in today's Mail, which confirms what Full Fact found three weeks ago:

The headline of an article on 3 January suggested that there are 4,000 foreign murderers and rapists in the UK who cannot be deported.

We are happy to clarify that, as the article stated, the figure in fact refers to 3,980 foreign criminals, including murderers and rapists, who are currently subject to deportation orders.

In other words, when the Mail splashed '4,000 murderers and rapists' on its front page, it didn't actually know how many of that 4,000 were guilty of those crimes.

The clarification, however, did not make the front page, where the original error appeared so prominently. Mail editor Paul Dacre said at one of the Leveson seminars in October 2011:

I believe corrections must be given more prominence. As from next week, the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday and Metro will introduce a "Corrections and Clarifications" column on page two of these papers.

He said this a couple of months after telling MPs that it was a 'great myth' that corrections are 'buried'.

But today's clarification didn't make page two either. The paper has devoted that page to their 'daily lottery' today. Instead, it's buried towards the bottom of page four:

Quite a difference when compared with the size of the original error - especially from a paper whose editor said that corrections 'must be given more prominence'. 

(Thanks to Nick, Steve and Lee for help with the page four image)

The Mail v Big Fat Quiz of the Year

The Mail has been desperately trying to create 'Sachsgate II' over a few jokes broadcast - after the watershed - on The Big Fat Quiz of the Year:

Originally, Ofcom received only a handful of complaints by people who appeared to have actually watched the programme. After several days of campaigning by the Mail, that number reached 165. Not, exactly, the success they were clearly hoping for:

Ofcom had received five complaints by last night, but that number could quickly grow – in Sachsgate, an initial two complaints rose to nearly 45,000.

The Mail said it made:

no apology for voicing concerns shared by an overwhelming but seldom-heard majority.

So seldom-heard, indeed, that even after days of trying to get a negative reaction, only a fraction of the people who saw the programme, or had read the jokes in the Mail, bothered to make themselves heard. 

The majority of comments on the online versions of the articles were critical of the Mail's stance. When the Mail needed some 'angry' comments to back its position, it chose the 'worst rated' ones from its own website.

Ofcom told the Independent that:

the vast majority [of complaints] were made in response to the negative media coverage.

Yet when defending Jan Moir over her nasty Stephen Gately article at the Leveson Inquiry, Mail editor Paul Dacre downplayed the 22,000 complaints sent to the PCC. He said:

You keep using the phrase "a lot of people" complained about this. You realise that these are all online complaints and this is an example of how tweetering can create a firestorm within hours...Most of those people conceded they hadn't read the piece.

But the Mail expresses no such concerns about the Big Fat Quiz complaints:

it was revealed that complaints to Ofcom and the broadcaster had now reached 165.

At least 80 viewers have complained to Ofcom about the show, which featured puerile sexual jokes and innuendo just minutes after the 9pm watershed. Some 85 have complained directly to Channel 4.

Some of the Mail's anger was specifically aimed at Jonathan Ross, who the paper has targeted since Sachsgate. Ross appeared on Big Fat Quiz and his production company made it. An editorial on 2 January said:

the Mail is quite happy to be accused of being reactionary when it wonders how many more of society’s broader problems are exacerbated by such creeps as Ross.

It also argued:

It cannot, surely, be fanciful to draw a connection between the explicit four-letter outbursts of such TV role models and the epidemic of vile, coarse ‘sexting’ in our schools.

But the paper provided no evidence for such a connection.

The Mail has repeated the (what it calls) 'vile' jokes again and again - including embedding video of 'one of the controversial jokes' on its online articles. It claimed that it had to publish all the jokes so people could make up their own mind about whether they were suitable for broadcast. It said the same when it repeatedly published dozens of images and videos of scantily-clad singers on The X Factor.

The Sun, however, was more coy. It said a joke about the Queen was:

too coarse to be repeated in a family newspaper.

Oddly, the Sun positioned this story and this claim on page 3, next to a topless female model. This is also the very same 'family newspaper' that on both the 28 October 2011 and 11 November 2011 ran full page ads for 'Triple-X DVD blockbusters'.

This morning, the lead story on MailOnline was this:

The headline was clear: Jack Whitehall could be dropped as a presenter at the National TV Awards. But deep in the story, there was this giveaway sentence:

A spokesman for the awards last night said the comedian had been booked and would be presenting an award as planned.

Despite that, MailOnline decided to run it as a major story implying the opposite.

The Independent revealed a few hours later:

Kim Turberville, creator and executive producer of the NTA, told The Independent: "Contrary to spurious reports earlier today, I would like to confirm that there has been no crisis summit over Jack Whitehall’s invitation to present an award at this year’s National Television Awards."

"We are very much looking forward to welcoming him on January 23 for our live show.”

The final word, for now, should go to the Mail, which said - apparently without irony - in its 2 January 2013 editorial:

Indeed, a New Year seems an appropriate time to take stock of what is deemed acceptable in popular culture – and ask what effects a constant diet of filth, misogyny and casual contempt for the vulnerable may have on impressionable young minds.

Desmond papers disagree over Brucie's future

The headline on the front of today's Daily Star Sunday is 'Brucie: I'm Off! - No new contract for Strictly star':

The online version of the article carries the headline: Bruce to leave Strictly. It explains:

Strictly legend Sir Bruce Forsyth may be set to leave the show.

Brucie, 84, told us he has not signed a new contract for next year’s series.

The Star's sister paper, the Sunday Express, has a slightly different take on what Bruce has said in the same interview. Their front page says 'Brucie: I'm not going to retire' and the story makes clear no decision has been made about Strictly:

The online version, which runs under the headline 'Nice to carry on, to carry on nice Bruce Forsyth' says:

Sir Bruce Forsyth has again ruled out retirement.

Despite suggestions that he may bow out of Strictly Come Dancing this year, the showbusiness legend, 84, says he isn’t planning to leave the stage just yet...

Forsyth, who took a week off from Strictly this year, will decide whether to present the next series when he returns in April from a winter in Puerto Rico, his wife Wilnelia’s home country.

He said: “Who knows how long I will go on for? I could turn around tomorrow and say, ‘I’ve had enough’. It could be in a couple of weeks’ time.

“But at the moment, and with what we’ve been doing, which is to assess each year before we start, I’m certainly not going to retire.

“That’s the last thing on my mind, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this show at the Albert Hall next year. Retiring is completely out of my mind.”

Star's latest example of an 'embellished and inaccurate' headline

The front page of Saturday's Daily Star boasts an 'exclusive':

'Ash and Dec's Secret Jungle Date'. It's yet another story from I'm A Celebrity which has been on the front page of the Star almost every day since the series started.

Just below the 'Exclusive' banner we're told:

Sex-starved TV babe Ashley Roberts wants a date with I'm A Celebrity host Declan Donnelly after leaving the jungle, we can reveal.  

So the 'secret date' hasn't actually happened.

This comes two days after the Leveson Report said, in a section on 'deliberately misleading headlines' in which the Star gets several mentions (p.682):

What seems clear is that, faced with a fiercely competitive market, some titles have found themselves on the wrong side of the line between an attention-grabbing but accurate headline and an embellished and inaccurate headline.

'Exactly what happened'

Yesterday, Daily Mail Sport tweeted a link to an article claiming Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini had fallen asleep during his team's recent game against Tottenham Hotspur:

MailOnline's Martin Domin wrote:

Manchester City have yet to hit the heights of their Premier League winning campaign last season but they haven't been so bad to send anyone to sleep.

But that is exactly what happened at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday when City boss Roberto Mancini appeared to nod off during injury time in the first half.

And it's not as if his side were winning at the time - Tottenham were in front thanks to a Steven Caulker header.

Thankfully for City's title hopes, Mancini woke from his slumber in time to deliver a half-time team talk that inspired his men to victory after goals from Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko.

But if you try to click on that link now, you get a 'The page you have requested does not exist or is no longer available' error page.

Why?

Probably because Mancini didn't actually fall asleep (from Kiimi):

As the Guardian's 'as it happened' report of the match explained:

45 min+1: Aguero takes the ball on his chest masterfully in the box. He finds Silva, who works a slide ball through to Zabaleta. His shot is saved though. The cameras cut to Mancini in his dug out. He looks momentarily interested, sees Zabaleta's shot, then rolls his eyes, slumps in his chair and goes back to talking to himself.

(Hat-tip to Ste)

Spinning the results of medical trials

On 11 September, a study was published on 'Misrepresentation of Randomized Controlled Trials in Press Releases and News Coverage'.

The aim of the research was to:

• evaluate the presence of “spin” in press releases and associated media coverage; and 
• evaluate whether findings of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) based on press releases and media coverage are misinterpreted.

The researchers identified:

• 41% of abstracts contained spin.
• 46% of press releases contained spin.
• 51% of news items contained spin.

(The researchers defined 'spin' as: 'reporting that emphasizes the beneficial effects of the experimental (new) treatment.')

NHS Behind the Headlines explains:

First, at the abstract (summary) level. Leaving aside any deliberate spinning, many researchers may just unconsciously “sex-up” their report abstracts to present them in the best possible light...

Second, at the press release level. Press officers for universities, research institutes or medical journals are under pressure to generate media coverage. And a lively, positive “breakthrough” will get more coverage than results that are dull and inconclusive.

Third, at the journalism level. Many journalists claim (with some justification) that they are over-worked and under-resourced so they simply read the press release (and some might read the abstract) before writing the story. The full study on which the press release is based is rarely read.

The result: articles about cake curing dementia, Page 3 making you brainy, and the cancer risk of turning the light on when you go to the toilet at night. 

NHS Choices has a 'How to read health news' guide, which suggests some key things to look for in such reporting. For example - was the research done on humans or mice? How many people were involved? Did the study assess what is mentioned in the headline?

(Hat-tip to Mike)

The 'pelican with TWO HEADS'

MailOnline reports:

A two-headed pelican? We're told by Snejana Farberov:

Two heads are always better than one, the saying goes, although one feathered fowl may disagree.

A pelican that appears to have two heads was captured in flight over the Danube River by a lucky Ukrainian photographer earlier this month.

The image was taken by Vladimir Kucherenko in the Danube Delta, Europe's largest and best preserved delta which is a host to 300 species of birds...

This is not the first time this phenomenon has been seen among the winged representatives of the animal kingdom.

Here's the pic of 'this phenomenon', as it appears on MailOnline:

The majority of the comments on the story are, unsurprisingly, critical of the Mail ("Can I have a job with DM please? Clearly, it's quite easy and your reporters can write any old unverified rubbish," says logical15).

(Hat-tip to Arnold)

The 'huge police hunt' that wasn't

This headline from MailOnline sounds serious:

The first sentence of the story then says:

A seven-year-old girl who went missing after she boarded a bus on her own almost sparking a frantic police search has been found trying to get another bus back home.

'Almost'? So the 'huge police hunt' was, in fact, 'almost' a hunt.

Skip to the last three sentences and:

Merseyside Police confirmed officers received a call from Mrs McGeehan at 6pm reporting her daughter missing and then got a call from the [bus company] security staff at 6.05pm saying they had found her.

A spokesman said: 'Officers were about to deploy resources and look for the girl when the call came in from the bus company employee.

'We were able to marry the two calls up and the matter was resolved without the need for a full scale search. This is no longer a police matter.'

(Hat-tip to Arnold at the Mailwatch Forum)

'Breakthrough'

The front page of the Sunday Mirror claimed it had an 'exclusive' about a 'breakthrough' in the search for the body of Keith Bennett:

'Moors murders spade clue', it promises. Simon Wright's article states:

This spade could unlock the mystery of where Moors murder victim Keith Bennett is buried.

But skip to the end of the 1,500-word article and it says this:

Tonight, a spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said in a statement: “We are aware of the claims and are satisfied they would be of no assistance in finding Keith Bennett’s body.”

So in what way is this a 'breakthrough'?

The Sunday Mirror is not entirely transparent about who discovered the spade. It says it was found by 'justice campaigners' and 'campaigners searching for the body of Moors murder victim Keith Bennett'.

But they are, in fact, members of 'Worsley Paranormal Group' - according to their website:

the group is one of the North West's most respected paranormal investigators

An hour after this story was posted on the Mirror's website, a version appeared on MailOnline. It also had a hopeful headline:

It also includes quotes that contradict the headline, this time from someone who had been examining the spade:

Steve Kershaw, senior lecturer in forensic analytical science at Manchester Metropolitan University...said he has been unable to trace its history.

He said: 'It is very, very corroded. The metal in it appears to be a reasonable steel that pre-dates the start of recycling.

'There was some vegetation attached to it and was found in an area of peat.

'The handle had been broken off, but even if we had lots more time, and even if we had established that it was a spade from the 60s or pre-dated the 60s, we would not have necessarily established if it was anything to do with Ian Brady.

'The only way we would have been able to tell is if it had DNA on it and that is harder to tell with the handle gone, with it being so corroded.

'Although some vegetation has survived, there is very little chance of DNA having survived.'

He said the spade has now been returned to its finders.

Today, the Mail has another article on this subject - this time, reporting comments from Keith's brother Alan:

'This is complete nonsense as is the Worsley Paranormal Group’s theories and activities.

'They are to be found all over the internet chasing anybody who they think will listen to them. They also post videos claiming to have picked up Keith on a "ghost box" machine, all of which I find totally disgusting.

'They know my thoughts on their "findings" and when they realised, finally, that I could not take them seriously, they got very angry to the point of being abusive.

'It seems now they, just like the other "oddballs" in the news lately, have gone to a newspaper. They have seen their moment to jump on the bandwagon with all the recent publicity about the case.

'This is just another of several spades that have been found on the moor. It is not near any real area of interest to anybody but themselves. I have spoken about these people with the police and we all agreed their "evidence" was of the sort that did not warrant further consideration - to put it mildly.'

He added: 'I am and will continue to be offended and angered by these people.'

Mail corrects headline on foreign aid story

The Mail, 30 June 2012:

How your money is being squandered: The African village where EVERY family is getting £7,500 from the British taxpayer.

The Mail, 17 August 2012:

The headline of an article about international aid on June 30 said the British taxpayer was giving £7,500 to each of 2,250 households – equating to some 11,000 people – in a village in Ghana to lift them out of poverty. In fact, as the article stated, only £11.5million of the £17.2million is being donated by the UK, and the five-year project aims to help 30,000 people in all.

The headline has been changed slightly but it still includes the £7,500 figure, and this correction has not been added.

'Revealed'

Today's Daily Star claims to have a 'Big Brother exclusive':

By using 'exclusive', the Star implies it is actually 'revealing' the 'big sex secret'.

But it is not. 

Today's story (on the front of Richard Desmond's Daily Star) reveals that Brian Dowling, host of Big Brother (broadcast of Richard Desmond's Channel 5), told new! magazine (owned by Richard Desmond) that he'd like Jasmine Lennard - a former partner of Cowell and housemate on Celebrity Big Brother - to reveal some 'sex secrets'.

But the Star told us under the very similar and equally misleading front page headline 'Cowell's secret Big Bro sex romps' on 31 July:

The model, 27, signed a legal agreement never to spill the beans about her sizzling six-month fling with The X Factor boss.

So nothing has been, or looks likey to be, 'revealed'. 

As Star editor Dawn Neesom told the Leveson Inquiry:

We do rely on people picking up the newspaper off the news stands, which is why our front pages have to be as eye-catching as we can make them.

Shame they aren't as accurate as they could make them.

Another 'eye-catching' Star headline on Cowell

The front page of today's Daily Star has, it claims, an 'exclusive':

It is not unusual for Richard Desmond's Star to run stories about programmes broadcast on Richard Desmond's Channel 5.

And with yet another outing of Celebrity Big Brother starting in a couple of weeks, the Star needs to start promoting it now. So we have 'Cowell's secret Big Bro sex romps' on the front page.

Has Simon Cowell - who isn't dead - been having 'secret Big Bro romps'...whatever that means?

Here's the story:

Simon Cowell’s stunning ex-lover Jasmine Lennard is set to give TV censors a nightmare on Celebrity Big Brother next month.

The model, 27, signed a legal agreement never to spill the beans about her sizzling six-month fling with The X Factor boss.

However, the sexy lass is struggling to keep her lips sealed.

Oh. So someone who apparently had a 'fling' with Simon Cowell six years ago is going on Celebrity Big Brother (and won't be able to talk about it).

As Star editor Dawn Neesom might say, this is a headline that is 'eye-catching' rather than accurate.

Another 'cure' for Alzheimer's

On 18 July, the Express was at it again:

Despite the headline - Pill to stop Alzheimer's: News treatment will stop disease for three years - there is no pill.

What the research - conducted on 24 people - is actually about is intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) which:

is actually given by injection into a blood vessel.

The article by Giles Sheldrick does say that:

Trials of the drug...have proved so successful it could be available at chemists in pill form within a decade.

So there 'could' be a pill. At some point within the next ten years.

The NHS Behind the Headlines analysis points out:

Limited conclusions can be drawn from this research as it is early stage, was conducted on a small number of people, and was not peer-reviewed. Larger studies that compare IVIG to other existing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease are required to determine how safe and effective the drug is.

And:

The research suggests that IVIG can slow down the progression of some of the symptoms of Alzheimer's but this certainly does not amount to a cure. It is unclear how long the beneficial effects of IVIG may last or whether everyone treated with IVIG would experience any benefits.

All these caveats are extremely important, given the Express' eye-catching and premature headline claim, plus the first line of the article, which states:

Alzheimer's sufferers and their devastated families were last night given new hope after scientists hailed the “most exciting” breakthrough yet in the search for a cure.

Given all the research that will need to take place over the next ten years or so, there's a very real danger that instead of giving 'new hope', such coverage gives only false hope.

Star's ad campaign for Big Brother begins

The front of today's Daily Star claims there is a 'Fury over Big Bro live sex show':

The article, by Peter Dyke, begins:

Big Brother bosses will spark a major controversy by screening a live sex show in the house.

A 'live sex show'? On Channel 5? Rather than on one of Richard Desmond's 'other' channels?

It sounds unlikely. And as the article goes on, it becomes clear this is hype:

Producers unveiled the luxury Las Vegas-style BB13 house yesterday and it contains the ultimate kinky bedroom.

They have cordoned off two double beds and surrounded them with mirrors and lighting.

It is a clear hint they want the randy wannabes to couple up and put on a rompathon.

So there is no 'live sex show'. And even if there was a 'live sex show' when Big Brother starts next month, broadcasting rules would limit what Channel 5 could show anyway.

Is there any 'fury', as claimed in the front page headline? No. The article does not name, or quote, any furious person or organisation.

So no live sex show and no fury. It is another of those headlines that editor Dawn Neesom would say was 'eye-catching' rather than true.

This is simply about one of Richard Desmond's papers plugging a show on one of his TV channels. Dyke remembers to give the date and time of the broadcast of the first episode of the new series.

It's not the first time the Star has misused 'live sex show'. On the front page on 3 December 2008, it claimed Britney Spears had performed a 'live sex show' on TV when in fact she had simply done a song-and-dance routine on Good Morning America.

And trying to sell Big Brother (and copies of the paper) on it's sex content isn't exactly a new tactic for the Star either. Housemates will 'strut their naked stuff' or the programme will be 'full of naked romps' or it will be the 'sexiest Big Bro ever'. So for today's paper to claim this is a 'shock plan' is nonsense. It's the same tired old 'plan' that the Star claims is afoot every year.

Helpfully, MailOnline's JJ Anisiobi has joined the ad campaign, copying-and-pasting the Star's article into a 'story' which claims the series is already 'courting controversy'.

Star clarifies Lineker headline

On Saturday, the Daily Star ran a front page headline about Gary Lineker which he said was a 'complete fabrication'. The headline claimed he had said the England football team were 'losers' but admitted when challenged that:

'Only says this in the headline, the story itself does not suggest this is your quote'

Yesterday, the Star ran a clarification on page two:

Gary Lineker has asked us to point out that his remarks about England as reported in Saturday’s Daily Star were meant as a light-hearted jocular reference to how overexcited we get at our prospects before a big football tournament and do not reflect his feelings about the current England squad.

Lineker tweeted:

He added:

(Hat-tip to The Media Blog)

Star: 'Only says this in the headline, the story itself does not suggest this is your quote'

Today's Daily Star says:

Soon after this front page emerged last night, Gary Lineker took to Twitter to deny he had ever said the England team were 'losers':

'Only says this in the headline, the story itself does not suggest this is your quote'. 

Like when they said Simon Cowell was 'dead' - it only said this in the front page headline, the story itself didn't actually say he was dead.

And when they ran the front page headline 'Cowell: My feud with Cheryl' which included the actual quote 'we haven't had a fight'.

And when they said a celebrity couple had 'kissed and made up' in a front page headline, when the story itself said no such thing.

And so on...

This morning, Lineker added:

When she appeared before the Leveson Inquiry, Star editor Dawn Neesom refused to admit the 'Cowell is dead' headline was complete rubbish, saying instead:

you only have a finite amount of words you can fit on a page 1 as a headline...it was designed to be an eye-catching headline.

(Hat-tip to Martin Baker)