Tabloid Ruse

Child's play has erupted between the British Sun and German Bild (picture) newspapers, not for the first time I'm sure. And it all centres around one of their favourite pieces of fodder, David Beckham, and here's a blog discussion about it.

Is this sort of stuff really news? Do people really want to read this sort of stuff? What annoys me most though, is the hypocrisy of it all. The Sun comes out with this "How dare you try to upset David, and unsettle England's world cup chances, like that", when we all know that they are probably the best in the business at it. There are countless times when they have vilified Beckham, Rooney and whoever else you may care to mention in the England set-up.

And it doesn't stop there. Was it not the Sun (and others), again, who advised the English faithful to harass the referee who (correctly, due to a John Terry foul) disallowed a goal in their defeat to Portugal at Euro 2004. They even went as far as to publish his telephone number and e-mail address. The Bild is just as bad though, if you speak German you might like to look at this interesting blog.

Anyway, disgusting general behaviour, is it not time these publications where held to accountability? They publish outrageous headlines to make people buy their papers, but when they get it wrong they pay a paltry fine in court (or settle out of), and print a small apology on the side bar on page 7, between two pieces of irrelevant news. Should they be forced into a front page splash, making the apology and saying how stupid they were, or that their journalism in that case was amateurish?