Tabloids Category
The news as told by the UK’s tabloid press – The Sun, Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Daily Star and News of the World.
Abbey Clancy Is Cheesed Off Los Angeles
LIKE us, you are curious as to why Abbey Clancy, Wag to footballer Peter Crouch and a model, natch., returned home from Los Angeles before becoming an international megastar.
The Sun says “the real reason she quit Los Angeles” is that “she is addicted to cheeseburges”.
The hope is that the speculation can now end and Abbey can continue doing what she best at, and stepping out with her footballer…
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Posted: 11th, March 2008 | In: Back pages, Tabloids | Comment (1)
No Sex Please, We’re Cheryl And Ashley Cole
CHERYL Cole and her footballer, Ashley Cole, are reconciled.
They will not be divorced. Reconciliation keeps the tabloid plot going. What can you say about a celebrity divorce?
In “VEGAS: MY WIFE FROM HELL” The Star leads with news that “comic” Jonny Vegas is divorced from his “drunk, bullying, nagging missus”.
Vegas is famous for watching TV with a stuffed monkey in an advert for watching the TV.
Now Vegas is in the tabloids. He is “famed for his loud, hard-drinking image”. He “told a court he left Kitty Donnelly after she was ‘aggressive and abusive’”.
And that’s it. Other than the “missus” telling the Mail or the Express of “My Hell With TV’s Monkey” the story ends.
But reconciliation brings with it the promise of more sensation.
“Cheating Ashley gets a sex ban,” screams the Sun. And, no, not a ban on his having sex with Aimee Walton or a thrusting glamour model. Ashley is banned from having sex with Cheryl.
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Posted: 11th, March 2008 | In: Back pages, Celebrities, Tabloids | Comments (3)
Jeremy Clarkson Says Amin A Hurry On The M40
JEREMY Clarkson is making news.
“Top Gear Clarkson hurtles down the M40..on mobile.”
Can this be one of those zany stunts where Clarkson and his Top Gear team find a new way to get somewhere: James May (“I’m On The Lash”) is drunk on a turbo-charged shopping trolley; Richard Hammond (“I’m On The Train”) makes the journey on pubic transport; and Clarkson (“I’m On The Phone”) is taped to a powered-up Nockia 210e.
But Clarkson is in a car. In “BERK IN A MERC” the Mirror’s front-page news is that Jeremy Clarkson is driving on the road while using a car.
(Please refer to Anorak’s exclamation mark bin and sprinkle liberally.)
This is the “Top Gear star’s illegal moment of madness on the M40”.
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Posted: 11th, March 2008 | In: Celebrities, Tabloids | Comment (1)
Madeleine McCann And Shannon Matthews: Pets And Parents, The Sun Raises And A Disco
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann and Shannon Matthews
DAILY MIRROR: “McCanns diver fury”
Always “fury”.
Kate and Gerry McCann reacted with fury yesterday after divers began a second search of a reservoir for Madeleine’s body.
The couple told friends the search – funded by a Portuguese lawyer who they claim is a “fantasist” seeking publicity – is a distraction from the hunt.
Marcos Aragao Correia claims crime contacts told him she was killed and left in the lake two days after going missing.
Says a McCann “source”: “There’s no evidence Madeleine is in that reservoir. They believe she is alive and are concentrating on finding her.”
IRISH INDEPENDENT: “Divers search remote Algarve lake for Maddy.”
Says Mr Aragao: “If I was Madeleine’s parents, I’d want to be helped. It may not be the outcome they want if I find Madeleine, but it’s important for them that they find out what happened to her and recover her body if she is dead. There may be genetic evidence on the corpse that could help the police discover who killed her.”
Indeed. Any more clues? Can the paper help?
A Portuguese lorry driver told Metodo 3 he saw the German girlfriend of Madeleine suspect Robert Murat handing over a child in a blanket to a mystery man in Silves, a five-minute drive from the reservoir, on May 5 last year.
Michaela Walczuch has claimed she is being framed to protect the McCanns and denied any involvement in their daughter’s disappearance. She has never been made an official suspect and has only ever been quizzed as a witness.
So why mention it?
THE SUN: “Stepfather is innocent says Shannon’s dad”
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Posted: 11th, March 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids | Comments (980)
Woman Finds Diamond In Digestive Biscuit
MRS Kim Stead, 49, is eating a Digestive biscuit. She hits something hard. A toenail? A tooth? A diamond.
Says she in the Mail: “It’s my birthday on Monday so it was a nice little present. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to retire on it. It probably fell out of someone’s ear or belly button at the production line. I’ve told McVitie’s, who sent me a little plastic cup to put it in and return it.
“They’ve tried to tell me it could be ‘crystallised sugar’ but it’s definitely a diamond. They apologised and then asked if any of my teeth had been damaged.”
By the sugar..?
Posted: 10th, March 2008 | In: Strange But True, Tabloids | Comments (4)
The Wire, The Sun’s Pulizter Prize And The Death Of Newspapers
EXTREME Mortman looks at The Wire, The Sun And The Death Of Newspapers:
In Wolfe’s sprawling big city drama, the people on top — no matter how crooked or how lying, and no matter whether their stated purpose is to do the public good or harm — always finish on top. In “The Wire” conclusion, the ending appears upbeat — lots of smiling faces, lots of individual accomplishment, peppy music. But the folks who succeeded are, for the most part, crooks and liars.
The point was driven home — actually, bludgeoned home — by the Sun paper winning a coveted Pulitzer Prize, for essentially knowingly lying. David Simon (and did our eyes deceive us, or was that Simon himself in a brief cameo sitting at a cubicle with a sticker that says “Save The Sun”) has the paper winning an award for public service that they most certainly did not deserve. That comes after Haynes, in a newsroom rant, cites journalistic luminaries Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass.
The irony is that today, in real life, newspapers are being done in by the Internet, by bloggers. In Simon’s “Wire,” the Internet is acknowledged — but it’s not the reason for the newspaper’s black eye. It’s their own fault. It’s trampling on the truth, and disinterest in fact checking if it means missing a prize.
Posted: 10th, March 2008 | In: Tabloids, TV & Radio | Comment
Bishop Carl Cooper And The Church of England’s Good Sex Guide
BISHOP Carl Cooper is “being probed over his link to a married woman vicar”. Ooer.
Two naughty vicar stories in one Sun story. All good things come to he who waits. Amen.
And better. Bishops Carl is father to “binge-drinking daughters”. Glory be!
Lora is pictured dressed as a bunny girl and as a “gangster’s whore” in sexy stockings. The Sun looks at Laura’s Bebo page and sees that she has “tried pole-dancing, snogged another girl and once drank so much she blacked out”.
Why pay Page 3 girls when Bebo provides them for free?
Lora says one of her favourite sports is “running away from the police”.
Her sister Emma, 17, says she loves lager “coz it gets me p***** well easy”.
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Posted: 10th, March 2008 | In: Tabloids | Comments (5)
Landlord Finds Home Turned Into Cannabis Farm
SAYS the Mail: “Landlord finds £100,000 worth of cannabis plants in buy-to-let drug factory.”
John Leaver is at his detached three-bedroom property in Caerleon, South Wales. All fixtures and fittings are in the garage.
The lodgers are out. Says he. “We agreed a rent of £650 a month. The rent was paid into my bank account on time and there were no reports of any problems.”
The looks on the front doors have been changed. So Mr Leaver gets a ladder and climbs in through a skylight. “I opened a skylight and got inside. It was pitch black. There was a young Chinese-looking guy standing right in front of me on the landing. I was frightened, and he looked petrified.”
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Posted: 10th, March 2008 | In: Money, Tabloids | Comments (5)
Celebrity Charity Cases, Starring Leona Lewis
WHAT would celebrities do without Africa and charity?
Charity worked wonders for Mother Theresa, giving her a lasting fame. And it can work wonders for you.
If Lady Macbeth were around today, she’d be fronting a campaign for more exercise books in Rwandan schools, teenage acne and organic detergent.
No need to buy one of Jimmy Savile’s old tracksuits from a charity shop, or give money, not when a flight to Africa is so cheep, and the poor so available.
So here’s TV singer Leona Lewis in Africa.
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Posted: 10th, March 2008 | In: Celebrities, Tabloids | Comments (3)
Those Celebrity-Mad UN Ambssadors, Goodwill And Amy Winehouse
SAYS the Mail: “Celebrities who take drugs are helping fuel the trade in cocaine that is devastating Africa, a United Nations chief has warned.”
This is the UN that has already declared war on Pete Doherty.
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime, looks down on “coke- snorting fashionistas”. They are not Bono, Mr G9. They are not Bob Geldof.
He says: “Amy Winehouse might adopt a defiant pose and slur her way through (the song) Rehab but does she realise the message she sends to others who are vulnerable to addiction and who cannot afford expensive treatment?
“Why is this behaviour socially acceptable? If Miss Winehouse advertised fur coats or blood diamonds, there would be a backlash. Yet when she is the poster girl for drug abuse, nobody seems to care.”
It’s not the obsession with drugs; it’s the obsession with celebrity, which reaches the UN.
This is the UN that ordains Goodwill Ambassadors – and, no, they are not drugs tested.
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Posted: 10th, March 2008 | In: Celebrities, Tabloids | Comment (1)
The Sunbed Sets On P&O’s German Empire
A CRUISE ship captain is being probed by race relations chiefs for upsetting Germans – by banning TOWELS on sunbeds.
SAYS Captain Christopher Wells: “We don’t want that kind of Germanic behaviour.”
Those aboard the Oceana cruise ship can only agree. There will no submersibles in the swimming pools, penalty shoot-outs on the poop deck or repatriation of bed chairs by the laying on of towels.
But some people on P&O’s 77,000-ton Oceana liner are displeased. Some people have no sense of humour. As the Sun and Mail note, He has been reported him to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
A P&O spokesman says Capt Wells had “apologised unreservedly” to passengers. He has, er, since promoted to command the Queen Mary 2…
Posted: 10th, March 2008 | In: Tabloids | Comment (1)
Gordon Brown’s New Still Tax
“FAMILIES’ £800 BILL JUST TO STAND STILL.”
The Mail’s front-page headline is grist to the mill of they who warned us against Gordon Brown’s love of stealth taxes.
The Queen’s guard at Buckingham Palace stand still. Are they exempt? Or is it one Still Tax for all?
And how still is still? Is the Government engaged in a giant game of Dead Lions, walking among us looking for signs of life to tax?
If you remain still, you must pay. If you remain too still you are most likely dead, which leads us to think that this new Still Tax is a likely replacement to Inheritance Tax. In which case, is the £800 a one-off payment, or is the Still Tax calculated each year, meaning that the longer you are dead the more you pay?
Reading on, the Mail says the Still Tax is brought on by the high cost of heating, petrol and mortgages. You might be better off dead.
But, then, they get you there as well…
Posted: 10th, March 2008 | In: Money, Politicians, Tabloids | Comment
Holly Willoughby Is Today’s Blonde
HOLLY Willoughby is on the cover of the Daily Express.
“GET ME A BLONDE!” screams the Express’s editor, as he does every morning.
The file on Princess Diana is missing. Madeleine McCann is best ignored. Heather Mills is a dirty blonde. The Diana Dors retrospective is not yet ready.
And in steps Holly Willoughby. Sighs of relief. Holly is wearing a dress. A red dress.
“Holly takes the plunge again… as lady in red,” says the headline.
Holly Willoughby smiles a blonde smile…
Posted: 10th, March 2008 | In: Tabloids | Comments (2)
Shannon Matthews: Craig Meehan Denies, Roy Greenslade Writes And Whispers
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann and Shannon Matthews
DAILY MIRROR: “SHANNON STEPDAD HITS BACK – I NEVER LAID A FINGER ON HER.”
The media carries much news of how missing Shannon Matthews is being ignored. A smaller reward. Just one celebrity friend. The picture of a missing child. A child not there.
She is not Madeleine McCann, say the papers. Her stepfather Craig Meehan is not erudite Gerry McCann. But he is “beleaguered”. Fingers are being pointed. Speculation. Whispers. If not Gerry McCann, is Craig Meehan the Mirror’s “creepy” Robert Murat?
“I THINK HE’S A DECENT GUY..Missing Shannon’s real dad backs under-fire stepfather.”
Says Leon Rose: “I’ve always thought he was a decent guy. Whenever I went to pick up Shannon he’d be around. It was obvious she looked up to him. If she’s got time for him, then so have I.”
Whisper: “Shannon’s grandmother June Matthews claimed at the weekend that he was a sinister presence in the family home.”
Whisper: “Worried uncle Martin Matthews said Shannon told him that Craig hit her and begged to stay at his house the day before she disappeared.”
Says Craig Meehan, who has lived with “mum of seven Karen” for four years: “I’ve never laid a finger on Shannon. To tell the truth, these allegations say more about Karen’s mother than they do about me. She’s never liked any of Karen’s ex-partners and is always trying to make trouble for us. She wants to rule Karen’s life.”
Says Uncle Martin Matthews: “Shannon came here at teatime. She said to me ‘Please can I stay here tonight? I can’t go home as I’m in trouble’.
Says Uncle Martin: “Shannon has shown me bruises on her arms and told me Craig lashed out at her.”
Says “Grandmum” June: “Karen was a great mum before she took Craig in. Those kids were loved and cared for. Since he arrived, they’ve had a terrible time.”
Karen Matthews says “Rubbish”.
Fingers are pointed. Whispers. One fact: Shannon Matthews is missing. But no yellow ribbon in the Mirror’s masthead. No solidarity. Just introducing the family. One by one. No yellow ribbon. Not yet…
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Posted: 10th, March 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids | Comments (1,161)
Celebrity Suicide Watch, With Paul Gascoigne, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Jordan, Big Brother And All Your Favourites
“GAZZA SUICIDE WATCH,” says the Star’s front page, words illustrated by a picture of Paul Gascoigne.
The tabloids routinely offer their readers a chance to slide back the peep hole and check on the mental wellbeing of the celebrity in “my hell”. Paris Hilton, Brintey Spears, Amy Winehouse, Jordan – you alright in your mental prison?
The talk is always of suicide:
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Posted: 10th, March 2008 | In: Back pages, Celebrities, Tabloids | Comments (3)
Pete Doherty Writes The Musical Rocco Forte
THE Sunday Mirror says Pete Doherty to write a musical.
“Junkie rocker” Pete will write the musical with his former Libertines bandmate Carl Barat.
The singer, now frontman with Dir ty Pretty Things, says: “A producer from the theatre approached me through my record label. So I went down there to see a play and we met up for a chat. He asked me if I was still in contact with Pete and whether we would be interested in writing a musical together for The Donmar for the early part of 2009. I asked Pete and he loves the idea. He has invited me to Wiltshire this week to start writing it.”
The show is said to premier at London’s “high-brow” (tabloidese for ‘limited seating’) theatre the Donmar Warehouse. Londoners beware.
Doherty’s musical will follow in the footnotes of Mike Read’s musical, Oscar Wilde (“Your barbaric ways/ Leave me quite amazed”), Cliff, The Musical, a tribute to Sir Cliff Richard, and Oh Puck! “Mike’s new version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.
Barat and Doherty can be the new Sir Tim Rice and Lord Lloyd-Webber (in that order).A working title, for Pete Doherty The Musical has yet to be offered. And a story yet to be settled upon.
Although if Doherty can be rhymed with Rocco Forte, London may have a new muscial to remember on its hands.
Over to you, Mike Read…
Posted: 9th, March 2008 | In: Celebrities, Tabloids | Comments (3)
Global Warming And Nigel Kennedy Plays Vivaldi’s Two Sesaons
FREE in today’s Mail on Sunday, a CD of Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
How we grow nostalgic for those halcyon days when four seasons made a year.
As the Mail noted: “Designers and fashion experts fear the increasingly unpredictable weather could see the back of the industry’s traditional, seasonal collections…
British designer Katherine Hamnett said: “The entire clothing industry is upside-down right now and has been for some time. “We have bikinis being sold in January, and fur coats beign sold in August. It’s bonkers.”
Reports the Telegraph: “Traditional seasons ‘no longer exist’.”
Play up Nigel. Those were the days, my friend…
Posted: 9th, March 2008 | In: Tabloids | Comments (3)
The Sunday Express Scatters Its Seed
“THE BIG STORM BLOWS IN,” says the Sunday Express on its front page.
“FREE GARDEN SEEDS,” comes the obligatory inducement to buy the paper.
Careful how you scatter them, Express readers.
Posted: 9th, March 2008 | In: Tabloids | Comments (3)
Madeleine McCann, Shannon Matthews: A British ‘Spanish Maddy’
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann and Shannon Matthews
SUNDAY PEOPLE: “Maddie’s parents in cash offer
“DAY 19 OF HUNT FOR MISSING SCHOOLGIRL.. AND FRIEND TELLS OF HER HEARTBREAK.”
Are there shades of a melodrama in this story?
“The parents of Maddie McCann yesterday pledged cash to boost the hunt for Shannon. Gerry and Kate, whose daughter has been missing for 10 months, are “deeply concerned” at the plight of Shannon’s family. Kate, 39, said: “My heart goes out to them. We always hoped and prayed that no other family would have to suffer like we have.”
The McCanns are the media voice of missing children. Providers of the easy quote.
“Money from the Find Madeleine Fund could perhaps pay for a massive poster campaign.”
Perhaps.
McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “Kate and Gerry have no control over the money. The board will want to know what it is needed for.” The fund now stands at £544,000.
Perhaps not.
GLASGOW SUNDAY MAIL: “Maddie Parents Pray For Tragic Mari’s Family.”
“THE parents of Madeleine McCann yesterday offered prayers for the family of tragic Mari Luz Cortes.”
No money. No more posters. Prayers.
Their McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell says: “Gerry and Kate are extremely sad. They had developed a sense of unity with Mari Luz’s parents as both families were going through similar agonies.”
Mari Luz is dead. Her body has been found.
As the Sunday Mirror screamed: “Spanish ‘Maddy’ Mari Luz Cortes found dead in river.”
SUNDAY MIRROR: “’Two women broke into our home and tried to snatch our little girl. I had to fight them off.. I thought of Madeleine’.”
This is: “EXCLUSIVE BRITISH MUM’S COSTA TERROR.”
Another “Spanish Maddy”?
A British mum told yesterday how she fought off two intruders who tried to snatch her toddler daughter in Spain – in a chilling echo of the abduction of Madeleine McCann.
Madeleine McCann went missing in Portugal. It has not been established what happened to her. Her parents have been named as suspects in her disappearance. So too has a Robert Murat.
To Moraira, Costa Blanca…
Brave Adele Spencer, 28, wrestled with the Moroccan-looking women when they broke into her home and tried to pluck 18-month old Annabelle from her high-chair.
A swarthy foreigner. A swarthy foreign child snatcher. In Morocco. Morocco. Like him in Malta. Malta. And him in Belgium. And them.
And last night aides to Kate and Gerry McCann said they are keen to find out more about both cases – to see if there are any links to four-year-old Madeleine’s abduction in Praia da Luz, Portugal, last May.
Yesterday tearful Adele cuddled her blonde daughter and admitted: “If I had been 10 seconds later she would have been gone. I’m just thankful I managed to get to Annabelle in time to save her. “I never thought we would come close to suffering the same fate as Madeleine’s parents. You read about horrific stories like theirs but you don’t expect it to happen to you.”
Adele’s fiancé is called Carl. Says he:
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Posted: 9th, March 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids | Comments (786)
Paul Gascoigne Goes Home
“GAZZA GOES HOME,” says the Mirror’s page.
“BROKE GAZZA DOWN ‘N’ OUT,” says the Star on its front page. “Sad Star homesless and friendless.”
Little wonder he’s confused…
Paul Gascoigne’s Lover Tells Of Fruit, Sex With A Mop And Booster Seats
Posted: 8th, March 2008 | In: Back pages, Tabloids | Comment
Naming The Cambridge Graduate
THE Daily Mail features the Cambridge graduate who was charged with sexual assault: “Why was Cambridge graduate put on trial for sex assault after drunken night of passion?”
Jack Gillett had his picture and name featured in the media. His name features once more. The “victim” could not be named for legal reasons.
Jack Gillet is innocent.
Blind justice..?
Posted: 8th, March 2008 | In: Tabloids | Comments (2)
Madeleine McCann And Shannon Matthews: Mari Luz Cortes And A Middle-Class Media
MADDYWATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann and Shannon Matthews
DAILY RECORD: “Body In River Is Mari Luz”
Sad news. The picture of a girl. A girl not here.
THE body of a girl found in a river estuary in south-west Spain was identified last night as that of missing Mari Luz Cortes. Five-year-old Mari Luz vanished on January 13 after going to buy sweets from a stall only yards from her front door in Huelva.
The town is near the border with Portugal and less than two hours’ drive from where Madeleine McCann went missing.
Last night Madeleine’s parents Gerry and Kate sent a message of support to Mari Luz’s mother and father, Juan Jose Cortes, 34, a former professional footballer, and Irene Suarez.
Are the cases linked? Spain and Portugal. A body found. A child missing. Are the McCanns now nodding heads with whom the media consult and look to for an easy quote whenever a child goes missing; a child is killed; a child goes missing somewhere in the world?
THE SUN: “Mari Luz Cortes found in river”
The five-year-old’s parents feared she had been snatched like Madeleine McCann when she vanished on January 13. Last night Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry were “extremely saddened”.
Who cannot be made sad by such grim news? Who in their right mind?
Huelva is less than two hours’ drive from Praia da Luz where Maddie, four, disappeared on holiday in Portugal last May. The McCanns, both 39, of Rothley, Leics, said their “thoughts and prayers” were with parents Juan Jose, 34, and Irene, who had been sure Mari was being held alive.
The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: “They had developed a sense of unity with Mari Luz’s parents. Both families were going through similar agonies.”
Will the press now look for a new child to link Madeleine McCann to?
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Spanish police find body of missing girl”
Her disappearance less than two hours drive from Praia da Luz in the Algarve had prompted police to investigate whether there was any link to the apparent abduction of Madeleine McCann.
Shannon Matthews is missing. A picture of a girl not here.
DAILY STAR: “SOBBING SHANNON WAS BEING BULLIED.”
Best friend Megan Aldridge, nine, yesterday told “GMTV that her pal, also nine, who disappeared on February 19, had a hideaway near her home in Dewsbury, West Yorks.”
Children on the telly. News or exploitation? Hearts or minds?
“She has pinpointed the location of the ‘foxhole’ to detectives during two interviews. Megan said: “A girl came up to her at school and started bullying her. “I told her to go away or I would tell, so she walked off.”
INDEPENDENT: Deborah Orr provides context.
Many commentators have remarked that the disappearance of Shannon Matthews has not made the same impact as the disappearance of Madeleine McCann because of “class”. There is truth in that, but not all of it is as uncomplicated as some observers suggest.
There was an undercurrent in the McCann case of antipathy towards the couple, who could dine out each evening in a nice resort but scrimped on babysitting, and a sinister hope that these seemingly upright citizens might have had a hand in their daughter’s fate, and that their “class” might be shielding them from exposure.
There is, at least, no such smear of Schadenfreude in the Matthews case. It is understood that nine-year-old girls going home from school in insalubrious areas are rarely, but plausibly, abducted.
There may have been no great rush to sanctify Karen Matthews, whose anguish over the loss of her daughter is not questioned. But there has been little attempt to accuse her either. People feel sorrow, but not as much surprise. The less comfortable an existence you have, the more likely it is that you will undergo awful life experiences. That isn’t class prejudice, but a sad fact of life in a remarkably unequal society.
Money. A missing child is a matter of money? A mising child is a matter of a white middle-class media entertaining its white middle-class readers? A mising child is a matter of empathy?
BRISBANE TIMES: “Two mothers, two lost girls, one class system”
Meet the two sides of the social class coin in Britain: Karen Matthews and Kate McCann. From parallel socioeconomic worlds, the two women are bound by perhaps the most traumatic experience a parent can have: the disappearance of a child… The unkind have depicted the two mothers as Waynetta Slob – Britain’s most famous underclass stereotype – versus Kate Moss – darling of the glamour set.
Anyone read of such a thing?
They have compared Ms Matthews’ seven children by five fathers and her 22-year-old boyfriend with Mrs McCann’s IVF-conceived twins and heart-surgeon husband. The high-minded say these things should not matter; it is the missing girls that are important. But it is clear that the perception of class does matter when trying to capture the public’s imagination…
The high-minded? Or just the police and those looking for the missing children. The children pictured. The children not here.
A former Daily Mirror editor and media commentator with The Guardian, Roy Greenslade, appraises public perception and media judgement. “The mother (Karen Matthews) is unsympathetic. This is a dysfunctional family, and people feel, ‘Does she not bring this upon herself? Is she not the author of her own misfortune?’ ” He says Ms Matthews represents an underclass that Daily Mail readers and their like cannot and do not want to relate to.
But the McCanns, he says, with their seemingly respectable lives, represent the aspirations of Middle England. “It shouldn’t matter. But it does. This is a really difficult thing for editors. They don’t like talking about this aspect because it really does betray the unspoken way they make their mind up.”
Media spin? If it bleeds it leads. Stories of girls not here.
Shannon Matthews is on the front pages of the Sun. Madeleine McCann is on the front page of the Daily Express.
Posted: 8th, March 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids | Comments (920)
Pregnant Lisa Marie Presley Returns To Slender In UK Tabloids
LISA Marie Presley seems to be carrying some extra timber. Lisa Marie Presley has a blog:
” After being the target all week of slanderous and degrading stories, horribly manipulated pictures and articles in the media, I have had to show my cards and announce under the gun and under vicious personal attack that I am in fact pregnant.
Once they got a glimpse of my expanding physique a few days ago, they have been like a pack of coyotes circling their prey whilst eerily howling with delight. Starting with a London publication and then New York and Chicago all writing false defamatory degrading stories about all of the dark possible reasons I could be putting on weight.
Lisa shoud read around. It’s not just the UK tabloids – the Daily Mail says, she is “bloated”. “Looking just like Dad (or why Elvis’s girl must return to slender…)”
The broadsheet Daily Telegraph says: “There may be many advantages to being Elvis Presley’s daughter, but at times your genetic inheritance may not be one of them.” The piece is entitled: “Elvis Presley’s King-sized daughter Lisa-Marie.”
The US tabloids have been calling all day wanting confirmation on all kinds of insane theories. They couldn’t wait to find out if my weight gain was because I was just overeating, in which case It would be open season and they can do the old following in her fathers sad and unfortunate demise story again or less interesting for them and probably much to their dismay, I could just be pregnant and therefore have a legitimate reason for weight gain at which point they should probably wipe the saliva off of their fangs and put them back in their mouths or they may expose the black little souls that they are.
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Posted: 8th, March 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Celebrities, Tabloids | Comments (6)
Madeleine McCann: Kate And Gerry McCann May Sue Express Newspapers Over Coverage
AS Anorak readers told us days ago, the Daily Express may be preparing itself for legal hostilities with the McCanns.
READ: Is Madeleine McCann Disappearing From The UK Press?
For days on end the Daily Express led with news – and no news – of Madeleine McCann. And they stopped all mention of her. No longer story big enough for the nationals?
If the McCanns sue the Express, what could it mean for the paper that “strands for decency”, as the adverts say, and for the McCanns who maintain they are innocent in their daughter’s vanishing?
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Posted: 7th, March 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids | Comments (272)
Amy Winehouse Snorts Vodka At Rolf Harris
THE good news for Amy Winehouse is that if there are any blank passages in her memory, she can consult Amy Amy Amy: The Amy Winehouse Story.
The new biography is, as the Star shows in “AMY SEES READ OVER ‘HER BOOK’”, available at all good petrol stations.
Late night reveller shambling home can stock up on Rizlas, tobacco and learn what Winehouse would do next all in a handy one-stop shop.
Of course, Winehouse’s life moves on at no little pace and fans flicking through her text book may be unable to find the passage on her snorting vodka.
Helpfully, the Mirror begins work on the sequel, telling readers that Winehouse has taken to snorting vodka “up her hooter”.
Anyone wishing to ape the singer should know that the vodka should be inhaled neat, and not mixed with a slice of lemon, fizzy water oor a chunk of ice. All impure blends create problems in the nasal cavity and should be best avoided.
You should, however, set light to the vodka shot, as Winehouse is said to have. The shorting can be facilitated by a straw.
While readers go off and try that, Anorak wonders if this is Winehouse’s attempt to be the new Rolf Harris?
Harris is able to play the didgeridoo, the Aboriginal instrument that requires almost simultaneous inhaling and exhaling.
Every generation needs its heroes, and here is Winehouse replacing the long wooden tube with a short plastic straw.
If she can exhale a version of Rehab or Two Little Boys as the vodka percolates up her nostril, Winehouse may yet make it…
Posted: 7th, March 2008 | In: Celebrities, Tabloids | Comments (2)
