It’s arguably the most hated news source in Britain.
It’s no secret that “The Sun” is one of the most despised sources of news in the country.
Over the years they have been called out for their involvement in the cover ups regarding the Hillsborough tragedy, using any means to gain views and ratings – or, most commonly, just flat out making up rubbish.Â
But this time, the “journalists” over at “The Sun” have done something that can only be described as disgusting.
Clickbait is something that, frankly, will always exist – it’s a sure fire way to ensure your article gets clicks and views, and while some find this tactic a little unnecessary and wrong, it’s not all that bad – that is, unless, you want to use clickbait to fool a host of people that a 19 year old star of the game, has had a horrific car crash and could be in a seriously bad condition – or worse.
It sounds far fetched, but this is exactly what “The Sun” decided they would do – in an article entitled; “Marcus Rashford in terrifying car crash.”
Of course, any normal fan of the game would click this – most with concern for the wellbeing of the young England star at heart – that is of course, until you read halfway through the article to find that the incident happened on the 2nd of January, and that Rashford, thankfully, was just “shaken up”, in fact Rashford made a substitute appearance the following day in Manchester United’s FA Cup game with West Ham, entering the game in the 83rd minute.
It gets worse, as “The Sun” promoted the article on all of their various Facebook pages (“The Irish Sun Sport, Scottish Sun sport” and so on) as; “Man Utd Superstar Marcus Rashford involved in HORRIFYING car crash.”
No indication of it being over a week ago, no indication that the young starlet is fine.
Andrew Mulroy commented on on “The Sun Football” post, saying:
“Disgraceful report, makes it out that he’s in a bad way father a crash happened today, shocking newspaper.”
Andrew certainly isn’t wrong – and to go along with this, you’ll find such stories as “Antoine Griezmann WILL go to Manchester United”, where they claim there has been a 100m mega-deal agreed.
What sources do they have might you ask, what evidence do they have to suggest there is even the slightest chance this will happen? Well.. none, actually. None whatsoever. They’ve just taken a punt, in a hope it either really happens and they can claim to be “in the know” – or that enough people will see the title, and click – it isn’t clever, it isn’t journalism – it’s fairytale writing that would make Joseph Jacobs (the man who’s version of Jack and the Bean Stalk you’ll all have heard many times) blush.
And if we look away from football, just for a moment, to see what sort of thing “The Sun” write on a regular basis, you’ll see such gripping tales as: “I had drunken sex with two ex’es because I want a baby and my husband won’t get me pregnant”, and “How the world WILL END IN 2017!” Or my personal favourite piece of top class journalism, “Katie Price’s cat takes a keen interest in her eighth bum lifting treatment.”
Incredible stuff, really.
Now, I’m not saying don’t buy “The Sun”, free will and all of that – I’m just saying maybe the next time you’re in the newsagents or online, remember the sort of things these people will do – just to be popular.
