Daily Star goes hyperbole-mad, and made up words.

This is not a news story that needs any further promotion, but what The Daily Star has done has highlighted what is wrong with the tabloid media today, and in no small way either.

The story is about someone who has been labelled a former 'it' girl.  She also happens to be the Daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bristol, and elder sister of the current holder of that title, and the story concerns the outfit she wore to a party in Los Angeles, something she actually tweeted about, including a picture, obviously taken in the back of her limo, which gave a slight preview of her dress.  In other words, this ain't much of a story.

But, The Daily Star, also known as the Daily Star-Struck(!), decided it was worth covering and hyping to levels unseen outside of the Superbowl or the Olympics.  To do that, they describe her outfit thusly...

"...The socialite merged gapboob and dominatrix leather while attending a charity gala in California..."

Gapboob?  The very fact that the computer I am writing this post on doesn't even recognise gapboob as a word says a lot.  It's a made-up word, because somehow they think their audience won't understand the technical term of cleavage. 

As for it being 'dominatrix leather', leather is worn by many people other than dominatrix-types, but of course, since the whole '50 Shades of Grey' thing became popular, tying it in to that imagery has become the standard thing to do.  But somehow, I can't imagine a dominatrix wearing a full length dress with a fishtail hem, as the Daily Star describe it...

"...The full-length frock, complete with fishtail hem, was made from biker chick leather, bringing a very Fifty Shades of Grey vibe to proceedings..."

See what I mean about '50 Shades of Grey'?   Wait, it gets worse...

"...Lady Victoria's attempts to soften her look with an elegant updo and silver chandelier earrings failed to steer this look away from fetish friendly as she attended the unite4:humanity red carpet event..."

First, why would you need to steer this look away from fetish friendly?  Second, she looked glamourous, stylish and elegant in that dress.  And that is something not every woman could achieve.

She pulls of an elegant look, with leather, and she is critcised in the article for an indecent neckline, and wearing dominatrix leather.  Is it any wonder that newspapers are losing readers, as their grip on the real world seems to get more tenuous by the day, and the amount of hype that they put in to a non-story to make it a story, does the exact opposite of justifying the story's existence in the newspaper.  It highlights that the 'story' probably should never have appeared.


More power to Lady Victoria Hervey, I say, for wearing a very stylish leather dress, that made her look stunning.

30 idiots complain about Celebrity Big Brother.

The Daily Star reported that 30 people had complained to Ofcom about Celebrity Big Brother, specifically the task that required some of the housemates to perform 18-rated entertainment, a task that by the way, producers had to censor for broadcast after the 9pm watershed.

Honestly, what do these 30 people think they are watching?  Celebrity Big Brother is nothing more than licenced and legalised voyeurism.  It's the only way the general public can watch celebrities being themselves without finding themselves in court on a stalking charge.

Unsurprisingly, Mediawatch, the ex-Mary Whitehouse organisation, ciriticised it, but then, that's not news.

It's not high culture, it's programming designed to appeal to the base instincts.  That was just another expression of that. 

By the way, extra hypocrisy points go to Daily Star and Channel 5 owner, Richard Desmond.  He owns the channel that commissioned it because he wanted material to fill up his newspapers and magazines, and now his own newspaper is giving voice to those criticising the programme on his own channel, and partially encouraging the criticism.  That takes a total lack of any scruples.  If you are going to have a programme on your own channel, and you allow your own newspaper to be critical, then you are undermining the staff who produce the programme, and you are also saying that you are only interested in ratings and sales, not in anything else. 

Carla Bruni Sarkozy... and that picture!

Today, French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in the UK for a state visit, with his new first lady. at the same time, a photographer has released a nude photograph of Carla Bruni Sarkozy from around 15 years ago.

The photograph can be seen on the sites of the Daily Star and Daily Mail. There's no need for me to post the picture here directly, both links, if you choose to visit them, will show you the photograph. I could go off on one of my usual rambles about press intrusion, or about the price of fame, but there is more than that here.

I suspect that the photographer involved is making somewhat of a political statement rather than purely selling a picture. Nicolas Sarkozy is not a popular figure in France these days, largely down to his affair with Carla Bruni. The most recent poll puts his approval rating at just 37%, which is well down on his early approval ratings just after his election.

It'll be interesting to see if the Carla Bruni situation is as damaging for Sarkozy as Iraq has been for "Dubya".

Repackaged 18 month old news? Must be the silly season!

Stories may go in and out of news bulletins and newspapers depending on how much has happened in the meantime, but rarely do you get stale news. Today, you did, from the Daily Star!

The story is about new X-Factor judge, Dannii Minogue, and pictures of her enjoying "...lesbian romps with a naked lapdancer." at a London nightclub.

Now, originally, the crux of this post would have been that what celebrities do in their off hours is really not our business. Even now, I still believe this.

However this blog post has become a rant at a lazy media.

You see, when I checkout a story that I'm going to comment on, I do it the honour of a little research beforehand. This way, I find out if a story is pure hyperbole, or actually has something a little more factual about it. In this case, I simply typed in the words "Dannii Minogue Lesbian" into Google, and I found the story straight away, with the incriminating photgraphs.

However, what struck me about the story was not the pictures, but the date!

The story is reported on the site, dated February 2006!

This material is 18 months old!

Furthermore, just a little way into the story itself, the site reports that the story was originally reported in the News Of The World!

So, just because she is now a judge on the X-Factor, this story is dredged up from a competitor, repackaged it and branded it an exclusive!

Quite frankly, this is the ultimate in bad journalism! We see it far too much these days, but this is possibly the worst example of journalism I have seen in a very long time.

A little research told me just how bad this was and proved to me just what these so-called tabloid journalists will do to get their paper to sell more copies. This should give you all the reasons you need to AVOID these kinds of charlatans. Stick to reputable news sources.