Sunday, September 30, 2007

how different media jumped on a celebrity drug non-story

I spotted these revealingly contrasting headlines (one after another) in the Daliy Dose drug news round up today:


Drug is a problem, Michael admits

Pop singer George Michael has admitted his marijuana use can be "a problem" and said he is "constantly trying" to smoke less of the drug [BBC, UK]


Drugs aren't a problem, says George Michael
The singer talks about his heavy use of marijuana, but says he is lucky enough to have the income to support the habit: 'Do I wish I could use it less? Sure, but is it a problem in my life? No,' [Observer, UK]


For the record, I listened to the Desert Island Discs show (BBC radio 4) that both of the above are reporting on, and Micheal said lots of interesting and revealing things about his life, his music, childhood, politics and sexuality. As well as playing some nice music. Sad really, that some fairly innocuous - and clearly open to rather broad interpretation- comments about his cannabis use are still what gets the headline writers all in a tizzy.



Nice one Jim, and thanks to the ever brilliant

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Excellent, I noticed the difference in the way the Media Put this story!

The observer were slightly more accurate on the story than the BBC as well and on the BBC website it was highlighted as "Micheal admits Drug is a problem".

Glad you pointed this out!