I just came across this article on the Telegraph’s website this evening:
“Will the 2017 solar eclipse cause a secret planet called ‘Nibiru’ to destroy Earth next month?”
It even has a countdown!?!
The once great Telegraph with 1.6m readers back in the 1990s, publisher of the MP Expenses Scandal back in 2009. The Telegraph that claims to be trusted the world over.
Today it published a story so far away from its ideals that I had to check I hadn’t been caught up in a spoof.
Quite obviously, the answer is no. So what evidence is the Telegraph using to support this story – editorial standards and all that?? Let’s take a look:
“Despite the lack evidence” the article states.
So why is it being printed? Straight off. There is no evidence, so how has the ramblings of a nut job, who is basing his theory that the world will end next month of a line from the bible, getting quoted in a ‘quality’ daily newspaper?
How has the UK press got into such a state that this is deemed as editorially acceptable??
Quite simply it is clicks. The more clicks, the more readers, the more advertising money. So a story about the end of the world is bound to draw in some non-traditional Telegraph readers (worked for me…), so the fact that it is inane nonsense from a nut job does not stop in appearing on the site.
And we wonder why the reputation of our press is taking such a hit these days…
Ollie Lawson PR 