24 02 2006 The tabloids talk of their arse yet again
So the media is out to get us yet again!
The Sun puts out an article claiming Chelsea fans want to kill the referee from Wednesday, Terje Hauge.
How this can make the main back sports section of a national newspaper is anyone's guess. Having browsed through
the paper to make sure I had all the facts, they also devoted a page to diving and cheating. For some reason the
analysis of Del Horno's fall is more substantial than Messi's, despite the fact that the Barcelona player got Del Horno
sent off. Now I hear on Sky News and Talksport that they are talking about these alleged threats! I wonder if they will
print pages of diatribe against fans of other clubs when they sing, "Let him die, Let him die, Let him die" if a player is
lying injured.
How many times have people said that this or that person "should be shot". We never mean it, and nor would any
normal thinking person believe that Chelsea fans mean what they type and are actually going to murder the referee! It is
also quite ironic that these tabloids who are now criticising Chelsea fans for venting their spleen over a diabolical
decision were the same ones who published the details of the Swiss referee, Urs Meier, who disallowed a perfectly good
goal for England and Portugal in Euro 2004, and encouraged fans to let their feelings be known.
I always wonder if there is something deeper going on behind the scenes. I think many newspapers are livid at the fact
that Chelsea have overtaken their beloved Arsenal, United and Liverpool on the domestic front. The Daily Mail even has
two reporters (Ian Ladyman and Matt Lawton) who specialise only in Manchester United. The broadsheets are usually
more fair but even some of them, such as the Grauniad, do not seem to like Chelsea.
It makes a change from the days when the most you would ever hear about Chelsea was when the flower show was on!
It's easy to become paranoid about such matters, so the best thing to do is not buy the papers! Anyone who reads The
Sun is a moron, but unfortunately because of its large circulation we will now hear idiots regurgitating what they read in
the press because they have no opinion of their own. It is one of the most hypocritical papers. One week labelling a
model "cocaine Kate" despite the fact that many journos are the biggest cokeheads about! It was also interesting to see
that they laudably pursue a stance against domestic violence, and yet when their editor, Rebekah Wade, gave her
hubby Ross Kemp a black eye the tabloid remained strangely quiet! As if they haven't already got enough contempt for
their coverage of the Hillsborough disaster, now they are going to alienate genuine Chelsea fans! For once I have to
agree with Scousers and urge people to boycott their paper and any others that deliberately have an anti-Chelsea
stance.
The Daily Mail is perhaps the worst in this field. If you only read that paper you would never leave the house for fear that
an asylum seeking heroin addict would mug you on the underground in broad daylight.
As a final note it should be pointed out that Sky, The Times, The News of the World and The Sun are all part of News
International, which once had interest to buy Manchester United. TalkSport (as Adrian Durham pointed out to me live on
air) used to be part of that group. I also wonder whether they are bitter that they no longer have the 9.99% of shares
they owned of Chelsea. They now have fewer privileges at the club where they used to be a major shareholder. Now
that's paranoia! This could be a case for Mulder and Scully!
