Media Muppets: MOTD Suarez Dive Denial, Lescott In, Benteke Out. And More.

“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.” – George Orwell, 1984

In this Media Muppets article we will see clear evidence that the media rehash and re-run a considerable amount of old transfer rumours for easy content and link-bait.

First though, the butterfly effect of that Suarez dive…

The BBC’s Cover Up of Luis Suarez Dive has Butterfly Effect

This topic has been debated enough already, so we’ll put it simply – when you see the video of the incident, just watch Suarez’s left leg, and then tell us he didn’t dive! The natural movement is for Suarez to land his left foot, but he visibly twists it to enable a fall.

The Match of the Day pundits seemed to tackle it as if it was no big deal.  Normally, such incidents are treated with examination from various angles, freeze frames etc.The MOTD team surprisingly gave it about as much analysis as they normally do Aston Villa games.

Jose Mourinho had the previous week accused the BBC pundits of being bias to a Liverpool persuasion, and they were certainly pulling ranks on this issue. Alan Shearer was also on side and even had the audacity to blame Brad Guzan for coming off his line to narrow the angle. If he didn’t, it’s a goal, Alan. Guzan clearly withdraw his hands. Where was Guzan’s yellow card, if he did touch him?

Guzan went on record saying he didn’t think he touched Suarez and that Suarez admitted to him that he didn’t know if there was contact or not.

Credit to Suarez, he’s very, very good at what he does. But the BBC’s reaction seemed to be one of not wanting to discriminate or pick on him again. The MOTD viewer poll had 69% of viewers calling it a dive, which backed up earlier public polls such as Squawka’s were over 90% called it a dive.

As if to discredit the public, MOTD2 ran an extra video on the BBC website where other panelists simply said it wasn’t a dive, without showing ANY footage at all. As the saying goes, if you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.  At least Peter Schmeichel had the nerve to break rank on a later MOTD show and declare there had been no contact.

Former MOTD pundit Lee Dixon called it a dive and called out Gary Lineker on it and Stan Collymore also called it for what it was, and we all know what happened to him.

Worse than the racist Twitter abuse that came Collymore’s way was the way the tabloids used it as an opportunity to shamelessly take a pop at Collymore rather than tackle the issues at stake.

You don’t need us to tell you about the ethical reputation of the Sun newspaper and they’ve never liked Collymore. Check out when they got him to sign a confession to frame him by pretending to ask for an autograph!

Daily Star prove themselves inept at lifting other hack job stories

Jaymi McCann @ The Daily Star

Headline:

‘He is a textbook abuser’: Ulrika slams Collywood following Luis Surez Twitter outrage

Spiel:

This picture says it all.

Evaluation:

1. You’re copying an article from another tabloid and you still misspell the name of the person the article is about! That takes some doing.

2. Back to the discussion of VAR… Bring in video replays for all penalty decisions and diving will be a thing of the past. It takes seconds to make a decision, the time players are normally protesting the decision.

A potential spin-off benefit of its introduction would be the cutting down on naff tabloid stories too. Win-win.

Media Muppet rating: 10/10

Old Genk Logic

Danny Griffiths Chief Sports Writer @ The Metro

Headline:

Jelle Vossen may follow Christian Benteke from Genk to Aston Villa

Speil:

The 24-year-old has already been the subject this month of a £9million bid from Premier League basement club Cardiff City but Villa boss Paul Lambert is also interested.

Vossen has scored 100 goals in 240 games for Genk but has recently been on loan at Brugge, scoring 6 goals in 17 appearances…

The Midlanders have just signed former Norwich forward Grant Holt from Wigan but a season-ending injury to Czech Republic forward Libor Kozak means another forward is required to keep Villa out of a relegation battle.

Evaluation:

1. This is a super rumour rehash. Vossen was linked to Aston Villa even before Christian Benteke signed. And Villa certainly got the better of the two strikers.

2. Genk sent him out on loan to Bruges? Why, he must be really good then. If Cardiff City did actually bid £ 9million, then Genk should have bitten their hand off for that money. There is no way Lambert would pay more money than he did on Benteke, on a lesser player. And if he did spend that money on another striker and not a midfielder, Lambert would be committed to the nearest asylum to Villa Park.

3.  Er, Mr Griffiths. The Midlanders signed Grant Holt on loan to actually cover Kozák’s injury. The injury to the Czech forward happen before Holt’s arrival and is totally responsible for the former Norwich player’s arrival.

4. If your going to rehash rumours, at least come up with some logic to make a case for them.

Media Muppet rating: 9/10

Some one still isn’t bored of the traditional Lescott transfer window rumour

James Nursey @ the Daily Mirror

Headline:

2. ‘Tottenham are prepared to offer cash plus players straight away’…what like last time and the time before that?! I smell a transfer rumour rehash.

3. The David Moyes mention is pure fabrication, based on no truth or evidence whatsoever.

4. £15 million. Yeah, right. If £25 million didn’t work last time, then good luck with offering £10 million less!