The Lowest Form of Football Reporting & More Silly Villa Nursey Rhymes

By
MOMS
-

The event of the internet transformed journalism as we knew it. While it opened the door to anybody who fancied writing, the increased democracy to who could write wasn’t necessarily a good thing, as quantity made quality increasingly harder to find.

The knock on effects to print media also altered the media landscape. Magazines closed, newspapers shed staff and halved rates, and as media transitioned their focus to their online versions, advertising revenue increasingly became the focus.

Many bonafide journalists sought other careers as they felt the squeeze, writers were replaced by ‘content providers’. And from the content provider mutated the ‘click baiter’.

The ‘click baiter’ is a person with little moral backbone, has little interest in the truth, and is mainly in the trade of cut-and-paste knock-up jobs of newspaper articles to drive advertising clicks.

As well as cut-and-pasting (or ripping off), their latest weapon of the mass destruction of journalism is writing stories based on a single tweet. 

OK, we get why local newspapers might run a story on what a player tweets (still a bit lame though), but to put a juicy headline on a story that is simply based on a Tweet from a C-List pundit is perhaps as low as reporting on the internet can go.

Welcome to the world of HITC Sport. ‘Here Is The City’, to give it its full name, used to focus on financial news, before they got into the practise of degrading football media to new lows and becoming masters of the Tweet story…

Subhankar Mondal – HITC Sport

Headline:

Micky Quinn has a message for Aston Villa fans regarding Fabian Delph

Spiel:

Former Newcastle United forward Micky Quinn has his say on ex-Leeds United midfielder Fabian Delph remaining at Aston Villa and not joining Manchester City.

Former Newcastle United forward Micky Quinn has written on social networking site Twitter that Aston Villa fans criticising Fabian Delph this morning should apologise.

The 53-year-old made the comment following Delph’s statement on Villa’s official statement that he does not plan to leave this summer.

Evaluation:

1. Nobody cares what Micky Quinn has to say about Aston Villa football club. He should go back to working with Spit the Dog.

2. ‘Former Newcastle United forward Micky Quinn has written on social networking site Twitter’ Hold the front page! Lets deconstruct this a little…it does not matter to the universe what Micky Quinn has to say about football, especially about Villa supporters or Fabian Delph. So, why write about it? Can’t you get clicks for advertising revenue any other way?

3. This is not the first time pundits on Talksport have spoken ill of Villa supporters. We got vilified for not liking the fact that Alex McLeish and then later Paul Lambert was leading the club to relegation. We got patronised about celebrating on the Villa Park pitch, after beating WBA in the quarter-final. So, what is our role according to Talksport? To be cheerleaders without opinion?

When your captain pleads his loyalty to the club and makes various long-term promises, of course you’re angry if only months later he could potentially do one to follow the money trail. Asking Villa supporters to apologise is a joke.

4. This is not news or a story.

Media Muppet Score: 10/10

Tim Poole – HITC Sport

Headline:

Rodney Marsh’s controversial reaction to Delph news won’t please Aston Villa fans

Spiel:

The former Manchester City and Queens Park Rangers forward is far from impressed with the Aston Villa and England midfielder.

Reaction to Fabian Delph’s announcement that he will be staying with Aston Villa appeared to be universally positive – perhaps with the exception of Manchester City fans.

Pundits, meanwhile, have also heaped praise on the England midfielder after he released a statement through the Aston Villa official website denouncing any proposed move to Manchester City.

But not Rodney Marsh.

Evaluation

1. Nothing against Rodney Marsh, but again, what importance does Rodney’s opinion have on this situation? None whatsoever. This is simple click bait to wind up Villa fans because he describes Villa as a ‘club going nowhere’.

2. The Birmingham Mail ran something on this too, but HITC seem to run stories based on every one of Rodney Marsh’s tweets. I hope he’s on some kind of commission.

3. Hang on a minute, did I say I have nothing against Rodney? Scratch that…Who’s he calling dopey?

Fabian Delph pulled plug on Man City move – after speaking to Etihad flops Scott Sinclair and Micah Richards

Spiel:

The England midfielder had been due for a medical at City but was warned off leaving Aston Villa by his teammates

Fabian Delph was talked out of a move to Manchester City by Eithad rejects Micah Richards and Scott Sinclair.

Aston Villa’s England midfielder Delph was due for a medical at City, who invoked his cut-price release clause to the fury of Villa fans.

But he opted to remain at Villa Park after fearing for his first-team chances.

And his Villa team-mates Richards and Sinclair played a crucial role as they both left the Blues after seeing their prospects plummet.

Both warned Delph he would find it very tough to break into Manuel Pellegrini’s starting line-up. The England star loves playing regularly and wants games to impress ahead of Euro 2016 .

Evaluation

1. Well, lets start off with this:

micah richards2. Speaking of the decline of the standards of journalism, there’s not one shred of evidence in his article that either Micah Richard or Scott Sinclair ‘warned’ Delph or  persuaded him not to go to City. Where’s the quotes?

3. Is Nursey tapping Villa player’s phones? That’s probably the only way he’d know. Isn’t that illegal…or is it back in fashion?

4. What’s he got against Richards and Sinclair? He calls the ex-City players ‘flops’ and ‘rejects’ within the space of a few sentences. I wonder if he’d say it to their face?

5. Media Muppets believes in the freedom of the press, but we’re not too keen on the freedom of clowns. Now Nursey hasn’t got his best buddy Lambert to visit, maybe Villa should think about getting a restraining order on him.

Media Muppet Score: 9/10

If you’ve spotted an article that is just lazy journalism or worse, and perfect for Media Muppets then leave the link in the comments below, DM us on facebook or send it to us via Twitter @oldmansaid

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3 COMMENTS

  3. Totally agree with everything here – the days of journalism being a profession are long gone. The ‘reporters’ are worse than the worst of our politicians – and that’s saying something.

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