That’s ‘unpatriotic’: Daily Mirror’s Robbie Savage slams paper’s picture of Spurs and England’s Kyle Walker huffing nitrous oxide
WHEN the Mirror posted that image of Spurs and England defender Kyle Walker huffing nitrous oxide on his summer holidays – it was June – we were not alone in wondering if the paper had sat on the story. ‘Footballer gets off face on summer holidays’ is not a big story. But ‘England footballer facing crunch World Cup qualifying match inhales hippy crack’ is.
The Mirror then followed its shocker with a picture of Roy Hodgson looking not enough unlike Psycho Norman Bates.
We wondered is the Daily Mirror was deliberately trying to unsettle Hodgson’s England?
Mirror journalist Dan Silver thought us “idiots“:
Dan Silver: ‘Rumbled! Eng at World Cup would be disaster for sales. Oh… #idiots @TheAnorak: Mirror continues drive to undermine Roy Hodgson’s England”
Anorak: “You think the photo the Mirror chose is flattering to Hodgson?”
Dan Silver: “you think the Mirror has a campaign to undermine the England team?”
Anorak: “No. But you’re tapping into the fear factor – not quite the achtung! achtung! of old is it…”
In todays Mirror, columnist Robbie Savage notes:
“Kyle Walker was naïve, and plain wrong, to inhale nitrous oxide ‘laughing gas’ from a balloon at a party. He has apologised for his mistake, the Football Association are not taking any action against him, and that should be the end of the matter. But the timing of the photograph – which caught Walker in the act – being leaked left a lot to be desired. It was clearly designed to unsettle him as England prepared for a vital World Cup qualifier in Ukraine, and it clearly affected Walker’s performance on the night… The people who leaked that photo may have had their own motives, but at a time when everyone in England should have been pulling together and hoping for an important result on the road to Brazil, it didn’t look like a patriotic act of unity to me.
So. Did the Mirror sit on the photo or not? And what was the Mirror’s motive?
The Mirror’s editorial meeting should by interesting.
Posted: 13th, September 2013 | In: Key Posts, Sports Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
