Tabloid bullshit of the month award - July 2011. The MailOnline edition

It's been a mad month for trying to pick an appropriate article to win the 5cc tabloid bullshit of the month award.

The News of the World phone hacking scandal is still claiming scalps on a scale I never began to imagine might happen. An entire tabloid newspaper - the bestselling one in the country - no longer exists. The appearances before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee were probably worth several monthly bullshit awards to themselves.

Move along. Nothing to see here?

You can't say this last week has been an uneventful one if you're following the News of the World hacking story. FBI investigations, NI's bid for BSkyB dropped, judge-led enquiries launched, unimpressive performances by senior police officers at the House of Commons*, the Murdochs refusing to appear in front of a select committee and then being summonsed, police advisors who used to work for News of the World being arrested, Rebekah Brooks quitting. It's all go.

Truth and lies

Interesting article by Richard Peppiatt over at the Huffington Post today about the difference between 'legal truth' and 'moral truth' in newspaper reporting. Have a look, go on.

I'll have to agree that Fleet Street Fox set the goalposts a little narrow in this post about how difficult it is to get a lie published in a national newspaper. Sure, an entirely made up from nothing story about a celebrity rich enough to sue won't make the papers, but there are other kinds of story you can lie in, and a whole slew of levels of lie below 'make the whole story up from scratch' you can use if you like.*

How confirmation bias works and how to deploy the strawman with Richard Littlejohn

Ah, Richard Littlejohn. I'd decided not to bother looking at his stuff in any detail after wasting my time ploughing through his godawful books*, but today he offers us a masterclass in confirmation bias and how to deploy the strawman argument, so it would be rude not to pay attention. These are the rhetorical flint hammer and rock on a bit of string of the internet comments section buffoon, so it's nice to see them used to crushing effect by the highest paid columnist in all the land.

Tabloid bullshit of the month award - June 2011: the Paul Dacre edition

I had this month's tabloid bullshit winner all picked out and ready to go, I'd thought of a few gags, I was all happy because I wouldn't have to focus on immigration, there were many many clear and obvious examples of dishonesty and if that wasn't enough, I'd be targeting a tabloid editor rather than a hack. I'd also have been in time this month for a change.

But some other tabloid numpty had to jump in at the last minute acting like an arse and snatch the 5cc tabloid bullshit of the month award for May 2011 from the clutches of Dawn Neesom at the Star for twelve straight days of front page Giggs headlines. Headlines that mostly bore little or no relation to the truth.

A slop bucket on every front page

I've been a bit busy this month. Well, I say 'busy'. I mean 'I've been playing LA Noire until I finished it so sod you lot'.

But that's only one of the things I've been up to. To prepare for the broadcast of 'All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace', I've been rewatching old Adam Curtis documentaries. Curtis isn't everyone's cup of tea, but he is mine. And I really, really like tea.

'The Century Of The Self' is excellent. It's been a while since I've seen it - years before I even started this here blog - so how what it says applies to newspapers hasn't occurred to me before.

Full of crap and racist. Who knew?

Just in case you missed it.

I've said it before, but being able to tell what the tabloids are going to do is a rubbish super power. It's like having a power that lets you eat your dinner.

Earlier this week, some stats were released that were guaranteed to get the tabloids in a lather, and I went out on a limb and said they would get the tabloids in a lather. Ooh, those lathered up tabloids.  Always with the foreign workers and the too many ethnics.

Tabloid bullshit of the month award - April 2011

It's here! A stay in the country this weekend with no internet connection at all (unless I stood in the garden with my phone down by my ankles) delayed it, but it's time for the 5cc tabloid bullshit of the month award for April 2011. Hurrah!

It's an odd one this month. I decided to avoid all coverage of the royal bloody wedding wherever possible, and the thought of looking at the yes/no to AV stuff fills me with the kind of existential despair I haven't felt since trying to read the Sun for a week. So I went with what I know.

In the end, there is a tie this month. It was so difficult to choose between two potential winners, who were so completely wrapped up with one another that they both have to get it.

Did immigrant crime really double in just THREE years?

'Never trust the Mail on crime and immigration' I said last Tuesday in response to the Mail's 'Migrant crime wave revealed: Foreign arrests have almost doubled in just THREE years' from the Mail, which was subsequently churnalised by the Telegraph and Express.

And now, thanks to hmallett in a comment on that very post, I have a bunch of links to some of the sources, which means I don't have to make a bunch of FoI requests and wait weeks for the results to find out how much shite the Mail is trying to peddle. Hurrah!

Never trust the Mail on crime and immigration

Some things just don't inspire trust.  An email promising to deposit a million dollars into your account, a designer handbag for a fiver at the market with the glue still drying on the logo, an article about immigrant crime in the Daily Mail.

These stories are usually a bit like foreign worker scare stories.  They're about as reliably accurate as a pissed-up gibbon throwing darts at a board sellotaped to a bucking bronco's arse, but they'll do for something scary.  I've explained why a few times over the years.

Racism by proxy

What do you do if you want to say something that might be you know, a bit racist, but are a bit nervous that you might get called out on it? It's a tricky one.

Tried and tested solutions include the old dog whistle, where you say something that can clearly be interpreted in more than one way. "It's not racist to talk about immigration - are you thinking what we're thinking?" - that sort of thing. Of course, it is racist to talk about immigration if what you say is 'there's too many blacks', which is probably what a lot of the people looking at those infamous tory party posters were thinking.

Top of the Nazi pops!

Today, the Mail changed the layout of its website to put a banner for something even more important than news about Britney Spears' legs and potential strikes at the top of the page. Apparently - get ready for this - Eva Braun blacked up this one time! Oh my god! Why, it's almost as if she was racist or something.

The banner's gone now, sadly. But you can still see the story about the fun side of the Nazis. Ah, those lovable Nazis. The Mail seems to love telling us exactly how much of a barrel of laughs they were. Here's a top 10.  Break out the hats and noisemakers for your very own Nazi party:

Richard Peppiatt and the top ten ridiculous tabloid editor denials

When I got all annoyed at the Daily Star sinking to the depths of supporting the EDL last month, I said:

One can only hope that any journalists at the Star that have a single ounce of conscience left will be jumping ship quick smart. 

It seems that someone else had a similar idea.

What's this? The tabloids taking PCC rulings even further than they're asked?

A couple of weeks ago, the Daily Quail and some other bloggers were sent a letter by the Daily Mail, requesting the removal of some material from their blogs.

It says:

We have received a complaint from the Press Complaints Commission about this article and have as a result removed it from our websites and agreed to request that you do the same.

Hmm. Would the PCC really do that?

Poll finds out some things to make you worry or cheer. Go on, WORRY or CHEER!

It's been a good few weeks for the release of polls about people's attitudes to immigration, with the Transatlantic Trends survey that hit the headlines a few weeks ago was followed by an Ipsos Mori one last week that didn't. Both were very interesting reading for those of us who waste time worrying about how much our media contributes to a hostile environment for immigrants and ethnic minorities, and how much it shifts everything further to the right.

Then, this week, some worrying headlines:

'Searchlight poll finds huge support for far right 'if they gave up violence'' - Guardian
'Immigration poll 'disturbing' say anti-racism campaigners' - Independent
'Half of Britain 'would vote for far-Right parties if they gave up violence' - Daily Mail
'THE BRITISH PUBLIC HAVE HAD THEIR FILL OF IMMIGRATION' - Leo McKistry in the Daily Express

More evidence of tabloid influence on perceptions of immigration

Earlier this week, I mentioned how MigrationWatch quoted a poll from last year suggesting 3 quarters of people thought immigration was a problem, without bothering to mention another that showed most people thought immigration was much higher than it actually is.

That poll, the Transatlantic Trends Survey was published earlier this month, showing people in the UK are far more hostile to the idea of immigration than in seven other countries. But people in the UK greatly overestimated the number of immigrants in the population, with the average UK respondent estimating 3 in 10 have come from abroad. In fact the number is around 1 in 10.

Two thirds of British people also thought immigration to the UK was too high - but only if they were asked without being told the actual figure. If they were told, that number dropped to around a third.

Yes yes, hundreds dead blah blah blah. Are any of them British?

Blast from the past

Last year, looking at the Mail's coverage of the Haiti earthquake disaster, I blatted this out:

It's so common in comedy shows that it's a cliche - major disaster happens in foreign country, UK news agencies only take notice if British people are involved. Submit a script with that situation in and someone's bound to say, "Do we need to include that tired joke? It's been done about eight-million times before."

Yes, it's a tired gag, but one that's so accurate. Today's tabloids show this brilliantly. Most papers have included news of Libya and Gadaffi's speech yesterday on their front pages - it is a little bit relevant to the UK, people in countries across the Middle East in revolt against the largely UK-backed oppressive regimes that rule them, with one of the most infamous despots vowing to fight against a revolt that has already killed quite a number of his citizens - but the tabloids have splashed with the headlines that count.

My application for Daily Mail Trainee Reporter job

You might have seen around the blogs that the Daily Mail is advertising for a trainee reporter.  Anton Vowl and Angry Mob (plus a more people in the comments at Angry Mob than I've managed to read yet) have written their own applications, so I thought I'd be a big old copycat and give it a go myself.  If you see any more around the place, mention them in the comments and I'll stick some links up here.  *UPDATE* Ooh look, here's Primly Stable.  And Daily Quail, and Cath Elliot and Doug.

Here's my application:

Tabloid bullshit of the month - January 2011

It's the last Saturday of the month, and we all know what that means!

No, it's not the day I stalk the streets with a hammer. That's not even funny, stop it.

It's time for the 5cc tabloid bullshit of the month award! Stick a conical party hat on and start drinking warm lager from a plastic cup while 'Lily the Pink' plays in the background and your aunt embarrasses herself on the dance floor.

It was a very wide field this month, but I've said why in the email to the lucky winner so I won't make you read that twice.

Apologies and foregin workers again

Howcome they only take two thirds now then?

Hello people. Light posting at the minute because I've been trying to pull together the Littlejohn post and left one of the books at my mum's a couple of weekends ago. Sorry about that.

Luckily for the time-pressed media blogger about town, a nice regular tabloid bunch of crap has splatted out of the Mail and the Express recently.