Now that’s what they call a cock-up
The online edition of The Independent newspaper this morning seems to have had someone tinkering behind the scenes and not knowing what they’ve been doing, as every single headline on the front page, instead of taking you to the full story, only takes you to the first paragraph. At first I thought they might be switching unwisely to subscription-only, but there are no further links to read more or pay up.
Oops. Take a look for yourself, though they might have fixed whatever’s happened by the time you do. If it is a mistake, it’s a huge one. The site’s absolutely useless at time of typing this.
tags: newspapers, technical gaffs, The IndependentSwayze rumour mill of imminent death is just plain wrong
Sensationalist press reports that Patrick Swayze has only five weeks to live reveal the moral bankruptcy of the tabloid press once again, following on from the grotesque and vulgar coverage of Britney Spear’s mental collapse. Of course we’ve seen this mad dash to reach the bottom of the heap before, and will do so again. Boy George in the 1980s was famously reported as having a heroin addiction (true at the time) and having days to live (not true). Freddie Mercury had his sex life probed after it was revealed after his death that he had AIDS. Princess Diana was literally hounded to death.
tags: celebrities, morality, newspapers, sensationalism
