The People quietly apologises to Andy Carroll and LFC
EVEN with the best of intentions people can make mistakes. And that includes The People, the Sunday tabloid from the same publishers as the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror. Did The People have the best intentions when they made a mistake in a story they ran about Andy Carroll?
If it was a genuine mistake, and this was pointed out, a genuine apology would at least make up for some of the damage their carelessness caused. And The People did apologise, as quietly as they possibly could. If you hunted long enough you’d find it in the printed edition. If you searched Google you’d find it in the online edition. If you were fast enough.
The People, not big on apologies
For reasons known only to them the apology was removed from the online version of the site before that day’s edition could even be described as yesterday’s edition. So in case you did miss it, and perhaps as a reminder to the paper itself to be more careful in future, here’s the apology in full. Deep breath:
Last weekend we ran a story entitled “Do or Diet” in which we said that Liverpool have placed Andy Carroll on a 12 month regime to monitor his lifestyle, dietary and drinking habits. This is incorrect. The Club have confirmed that Andy has not been placed under any such regime and we are happy to set the record straight. We apologise to Liverpool and Andy for the error.
That’s it. The full apology. Just an error. They’re so happy to set the record straight that they print it as small as they can get away with and delete it from their website as fast as they possibly can.
This was the same paper that went to town on the return of Kenny Dalglish by claiming Liverpool were doomed for bringing him in to replace the man they’d backed (Roy Hodgson) so it probably sticks in throats that Kenny proved them wrong. But that was opinion, something they’re entitled to as long as it’s marked up as such and something we can all laugh at if it later turns out to be way off the mark. This wasn’t opinion, this was a lie, a lie designed to do nothing but harm someone.
At a time when the press, in particular the tabloids, are under so much scrutiny it’s perhaps an indication of how safe some elements still feel they are from the consequences of printing their lies or setting out to hurt people in whatever way they think looks nice on their increasingly downmarket pages.
Their ultimate safety is in the sales figures of the papers they write for and until they wake up to the fact that lies won’t go unnoticed, that they aren’t the only voice people hear when stories are told, they’ll continue to see their sales figures fall and those jobs won’t be as safe as they thought they were.
If they haven’t even got the balls to apologise properly and prominently for a false story designed to hurt someone then they can’t exactly be surprised to find readers become former readers. Better papers, or funnier comics, are available.
I’ve always said, that all tabloid journalists are scum of the earth. If they where actually any good they would have been employed by the big broadsheets. Bring back the daily sport least they never portrayed that they were a serious paper like the rest of arse wiping arseholes!
of course they are not up to make a better apology, cause they couldn’t care less. this goes for tons of other media and fans as well. there are so many out there that are just out to ruin everything they can for Andy, they couldn’t care less about the effect it has on him. They would write everything if there is a possibility it could damage his career. all they are hoping is that things go wrong for him so they can have their fun at his expense. I have never in my life seen a more disgraceful case as the one concerning how the media and so called football fans treat Andy Carroll, it’s absolutely disgusting. I think I could write 100 articles about how much this concerns me that the media and a bunch of lunatic fans are jumping for every chance they get to slate a 22 year old player who has never asked to be in the kind of spotlight he came in after unwillingly being sold to LFC. None one gives a d..m s..i about what it might do to him and that is what disgusts me the most. The apology to Andy can not be big enough.
The People should be sued! I remember recently Andy was made fun of on a Malaysian Satellite football magazine for being forced to Diet and change his lifestyle! Shame on you this is a totally an act of an amateurish bunch of idiots who think they can print whatever they like and then apologize somewhere in the inner pages of their gossiping so-called newspaper! We believe in you Andy!
The introduction of the Transfer windows has left many journalists at a loose end, they can no longer grab the headlines with made up or in some cases actual transfers throughout the season so they have to make up stories to fill their allocated column inches or else……