How to set someone up for a fall by the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25454266

Headline: Danny Wilson says club will stay in Championship

Er, no he didn't.

New Barnsley manager Danny Wilson says the club will "without a doubt" still be in the Championship next season.

No he didn't.

And when he was asked by BBC Radio Sheffield whether he believed the Tykes would stay up he said: "Without a doubt, of course we are."

Er, no. That answer doesn't make sense if that was the question asked. The actual question was:
Do you feel this squad, as is, is capable of staying up?

Not will you stay up, not are you going to stay up, not do you believe you'll stay up, but is the squad capable of staying up. Answering yes to that doesn't mean we will. It means we've got a chance. It means we haven't resigned ourselves to relegation. It means we'll give it a go.

If we are relegated, Danny's detractors have now got a great article to refer back to and give him some stick over. But he never even said it.

I expect this kind of crap from a tabloid, but not the BBC.

 

The BBC website is no better than the tabloids these days. Their chief football writer just writes knee jerk, sensationalist articles. More interested in hits than analysis and good reporting.

 

I notice that they've since made some changes to this article so that it belatedly reflects what was actually said in the interview:

has become "Danny Wilson says club can stay in Championship"

and:

has become "New Barnsley manager Danny Wilson believes his squad has the talent to achieve survival in the Championship."

The misleading question/answer has been replaced with a straight quote of the answer: ""Without a doubt this squad is capable of staying up. People might say we have no chance but I haven't come here thinking that," he told BBC Radio Sheffield."

I think someone's had a little word.

 

Cheers for the heads up mate. Wouldn't be surprised if someone from football heaven has had a word. If the original article had been extracted from my interview I'd have been pretty pissed off about it.

 

Indeed. It was a shocking piece of journalism.

 

Nothing new though. Nobody at the club ever said the phrase 'box office signings', but that never stopped the numpties on here from throwing it at the club every now and again!