- Wed Dec 17, 2025 11:10 am
#102098
Splicing two comments together to put something out of context is misleading, but is it any different to front pages putting comments and opinions on the front page in quotation marks? The number of people who don't understand quotation marks on front pages and would take a headline at face value shouldn't be underestimated. Obviously the papers know that and play it to their advantage.
The Mirror even had the word "lovely" to describe Paul Doyle, via an acquaintance, in the aftermath of 26th May on its front page (as I suspect others may have done but I saw a reel with that front page on a couple of days ago so know that as factual). That "lovely" man has a history of convictions including biting off an ear, yet I still saw a tv news report last night with a former colleague describing how he didn't seem to have a nasty bone in his body. The media don't know when they are comprehensively annihilated, never mind beaten, like they have been with Doyle. They still come at it with the nice guy undertone even in the face of the all the history and evidence including the footage of his mad driving before he reached the crowds and his obnoxious yelling once he was there and ploughing through everyone. We all know the angle they would have taken had he not been white. Perhaps even if he, as a white man, had done it at some Royal event with thousands in London, I do not think this is the angle they would have taken.
Obviously happens on news websites too, BBC Newswatch featured complaints a few weeks back about their news site reporting on a Tommy Robinson court case using quotation marks and how on some devices the full headline cannot be read so it all gave the impression that what his defence team was saying was factual. I can't recall the exact details but they were legitmate concerns. (I think the issue was the words "court hears" at the end of the headline, was not viewable on some devices).