Islingword Street

Why I will never understand Italian media

I've just been reading the coverage of the woeful Italy-Spain game over at Corriere dello Sport, and not for the first time I've come across a feature that makes me wonder what they put in the water of Italian media companies. Under the title "Beauties on the sidelines", Corriere has a selection of 40 shots of female Italy supporters in the crowd in Vienna tonight. Unusual in itself by British standards, perhaps. Then the Italian media twist - you have to vote Yes or No on whether they're hot or not.

Link: Spagna-Italia, bellezze sugli spalti - Speciale Euro2008 - Corriere dello Sport.it.

Telegraph says what it really thinks about non-drivers

From the Daily Telegraph's article on the Naked Bike Ride in Brighton today:

Others stuck to underwear and many just kept to the theme as they cycled the streets, catching the attention of peasants.

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When wind turbines ... KILL

The IPPR have just published a report saying that immigrants from the new member states are going home - and that many never intended to stay long-term. Checking out the Daily Mail to see what their spin on the story was (they didn't mention it), I saw this headline that perfectly sums up the Mail's attitude:

Wind turbines can trigger epileptic fits and seizures, say scientists

Almost, but not quite, as good as the Private Eye version of a Mail headline: "AIDS threat to Labour voters"

Wired is 15

Long retrospective on the first issue of Wired at Fimoculous.com. I remember buying Wired, back when I was a wide-eyed undergrad in the chilly fens and it was being imported. Probably not 1.1, but not too long after.

And then I became a dotcom millionaire.

Kinda.

Enough Trajan

Why movies should get over Trajan, at Goodie Bag.

Andrew Gilligan on Greenslade's blog

Interesting debate going on at Roy Greenslade's blog, where an article by Greenslade on Andrew Gilligan's media feud with Ken Livingstone has prompted Gilligan himself to turn up in the comments section and defend himself.

I have to say, whatever the facts of the dispute (which are arcane), it doesn't enhance Gilligan's credibility to arrive in the comments section and start banging away alongside all the other proles commenters. Maybe it's done from an admirably democratic, all in it together kind of motive. Reading it, however, it feels slightly obsessive and green-inkish.

Richard Corbett MEP on the UK media's interpretations of Europe

Here, via Fistful of Euros.

Death to those who preach violence, part 2

I really hope the staff at the Daily Mail appreciated the irony of their front page today. For those who haven't seen it, the screaming headline is "Kill her! Kill her!" A very Mail sentiment, but instead of heading an article about a single mother, a female immigrant or a Labour cabinet member, this was the *bad* sort of mindless bigotry.

You see, this is a reference to the demonstrations yesterday against the leniency of the sentence passed on that British teacher who called the teddy bear Mohammed. Apparently the protesters were a representative sample of the Muslim world, much as a football crowd singing "You're going to get your fucking heads kicked in" is a complete representation of every aspect of British life and culture.

And it turns out that these Muslims are all evil and can't be trusted. Which is a shame, as you'd have thought the demonstrators at least would be a pretty good demographic for the Daily Hate.