Am I right in recalling that various other countries have far stricter rules on newspapers quoting unnamed sources? I can only vaguely remember it, but the upshot of the piece I read was that British tabloids are effectively the Wild West of world journalism with far looser requirements for rigorous fact-checking than many other countries.

Although tbf- journalism wasn't exactly saintly in previous centuries either: the sensationalist coverage of the Ripper murders and society scandals being just two examples.

Not sure. In Spain is pretty bad too. Though it used to be know that the "English yellow press" was the worst in the world. Soon though the Spanish TV invented trash TV which is like this but worse and on tv almost all day long. It's revolting. (I am Spanish living in the uk for a long while.)

This sort of petty tittle-tattle ("Are they a couple?" type stuff) is bad enough, especially when the same source material is published by several papers. Reinforcing the attitude that 'there must be something in it, because it's in lots of the papers'.

I find it genuinely worrying when it happens with serious news. There was a recent story about a court case which was 'spun' in a particular way (not the first time I've seen that).

When you looked at the actual judgement, the story was very different.

Yet every newspaper carried the 'spun' version. Some articles were almost word for word the same. Others added on their own bells and whistles - but they all contained the same wording about various supposed extracts from the judgement. Some of which were out of context, and one in particular which was factually incorrect.

A brief skim over the actual judgement would have picked up that fact. Clearly not one of the journalists had bothered to look at what the judge actually said, they just published the flawed source material, with the odd embellishment.

That, to me, very much sums up the lazy journalism attitude.

I don't believe so no. I started my journalism career in 1988 and it wasn't like this then, even in the tabloids. There used to be the odd unnamed source story but they were confined to the single page of "entertainment" news.
The rise of magazines like Now, Heat etc, plus the growing number of reality TV shows, the internet itself and social media, has meant very little journalist skills are now required to turn out a piece of what passes for news these days.

I worked in regional and London digital media during my almost 20 year career and not one of my newspapers or online sites would ever have published something with an "unnamed source" without having that person's interview in a journalist's notebook alongside their phone number etc and within the story would be a disclaimer that the editor had the person's identity but wasn't releasing it for privacy etc issues.

Absolutely not.
If that was my wife in the picture, being "kept warm" by our next door neighbour, I can categorically say that his front door wouldn't be smashed down by myself with a sledgehammer.

Does anyone look into a camera and then start holding hands and cuddling?

I believe for whatever reason, Aliona is game playing BUT I also believe its a game that is starting to go too far which neither will be able to get out of. ( as a teeshirt wearer on this subject, I hope I am wrong)

Even newspapers can afford to print in colour now, and the look of it has improved quite a lot. It encouraged excuses to print random paparazzi pictures with excuses for story snippets with them. Anyone who wants an excuse for a print inch to go with a picture, only needs to trawl social media for 5 minutes for some gossip.

The 'code' used in the Trashbloids to give the impression that you can trust what they are saying, is presumably something they reckon they can fall back on. eg. things like - We put single quotes round it so people would realise the person never said what we quoted.

The surprising thing to me about the Daily Mail's 'interpretation' of what was going on with the hugging, is that they posted this picture along with the story.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/...3973558973.jpg

That picture and the others, plus what I have learned about Aliona and Jay from watching them, reads that Jay is being his usual gentlemanly, big teddy bear self, and Aliona has to gently press on his face to let him know that she is serious about stopping the hugging because it will be mis-interpreted.

and have you seen the way Len and Darcy carry on! its shocking I tell you, shocking! Darcy is practically sitting on Len up in the Clauditorium when Len's Lens is going on plus she never dances with Bruno or Craig during the Strictly Dance - they MUST be doing it! they must be, its blinking obvious

A source or unnamed source is often a PR person who is placing a story in the media on behalf of their employer, in this case a celebrity. All these shows, SCD, X Factor etc, are a huge source iof celeb news and the media will be given all sorts of stories to generate media interest.

I think the French have quite strict privacy rules so their press are very restricted in what they can publish, Hacked Off want the same here.

So is it likely then that one of Jay's competitors is drip feeing out dirt to reduce his chances.

Ah. A source = someone stirring it for effect regardless of fact.

cant get the link to work but this ******************* article kinda corroborates that:-

http://www./strictly-come-dancing/sh...down-strictly/

"Jay explained that when The Wanted split up last year, he decided to take a year out to go travelling in America and around Europe…

He added, “I just wanted to escape and live a normal life for a while. It was important to get completely away and just breathe.”

And he did a lot of that breathing while camping out in The Big Basin Redwoods State Park apparently, though he would have liked to have stayed longer.

He said, “It made me realise how small and insignificant I was because that tree [an ancient redwood] has been there for thousands of years.

“I wanted to camp there forever.”

But of course, just like the rest of us, Jay has bills to pay, so when the offer of a place on the Strictly lineup this year, Jay accepted, but only after his former band mates encouraged him to.

He explained, “I wasn’t sure I wanted to throw myself back into the limelight. I’m actually quite shy and nervous on my own…”

But his band mates told him to “stop worrying” and just get on with it, which happily for Strictly viewers, he did.

However, his Strictly partner Aliona Vilani has had to coax Jay out of his shell somewhat it seems, as she said, “He’s very shy…

“He isn’t a show-off but that’s something that we need to bring out in him.”

Well he and Aliona look really happy at his old school. He's just posted a lot of really lovely photos of him with the kids
https://twitter.com/JayMcGuiness

eg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CRwlVN2VEAAMPx_.jpg

Lovely guy.

"just like the rest of us, Jay has bills to pay"

erm - wasn't he in a world-famous band for five years, complete with their own TV reality series?

I get that he needs something to do, but I question if he's struggling to pay the gas bill!

In plain sight to say the least !!! How dare they ?

Yes........... .yes and yes. That's what they need to do. IGNORE the tabloids

He went on a tweeting spree there ...lovely pics
I'm so glad he cut his hair. .that short hair cut suit him so much 😍

These were from last week, weren't they? When they Hijacked A Whole School!! ...

Strictly Come Dancing 2015 Checklist.

Rumours of partners are now a couple. (check)

I really doubt it- seems much more likely to me that each news outlet simply wants to write a story that will generate as many views as possible. And controversy -about ANYthing- sells.

If stories about budgerigars were huge click-bait, then that's what they'd write about. Papers and websites don't write about stories that don't get bought or clicked on.

Pretty much this. I don't know if you guys have read it before but a former Mail writer wrote a piece about how these articles are generated and it was eye-opening, and honestly a bit scary when you consider how many people blindly believe something because it's in a paper.

http://tktk.gawker.com/my-year-ripping-off-the-web-with-the-daily-mail-online-1689453286

There was also an article from a few years ago where documentary makers made up a dozen or so fake stories and flogged the pitch to tabloids as a 'source' and all but one of the stories hit published somewhere. Not one of the tabloids or the sites who ran the stories bothered to try and factcheck them.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/oct/14/tabloid-fake-celebrity-stories-hoax

The tabloid industry is fascinating. I mean 99% of it is untrue, disgusting, clickbaiting fantasy, but the machinations are fascinating.

You do know that the manager's of these manufactured bands take the biggest cut of the money?
When starting off, all the kids want is fame and don't realise that they are being pimped out for peanuts (to them).
Well known bands like JLS and even Girls Aloud have publicised how little they earned to start with, compared to their success. The Wanted had little exposure compared to those two groups, so to have earned not enough to live on for more than a few years, would be the norm. He certainly would not be set up for life.

As I understand it The Wanted were huge in the States, complete with a TV show of their own. Just because they weren't as big in the UK as e.g. JLS doesn't mean they weren't massive earners elsewhere on the planet, even after their manager and all the rest of the retinue took their cuts. And actually if you sell out the O2 arena, you are pretty big in the UK too imo.

Also the band lasted five years. At one time they were supposed to be bigger that ID and we all know how much money they've made.

I agree that manufactured groups starting off generally make little money and/or get royally ripped off, but that's not what we're talking about here.

I would be very surprised if he isn't a millionaire, and good luck to him - but I think it;s very manipulative of that article to suggest he's scraping around to pay his bills!!

Edit - sorry, it appears I may have underestimated - according to this he is worth $8 million ...

http://www.celebritynetworth.com/ric...ess-net-worth/

While I agree with your post, the wanted was far more well known outside the uk than either JLs and I think Girls aloud. I don't think they were huge by any means either.