Opinion: U.K. tab spins cliches out of thin air
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If you enjoyed John Mueller’s recent Rambo charticle, which tracked the pneumatic commando‘s varied career along a rising death-per-minute axis, you were not alone. The United Kingdom tabloid The Sun got enough of a kick out of the Ohio State professor’s math that it decided the most sincere form of flattery would be to make up some fake quotes and attribute them to Mueller. According to The Sun’s story on the Rambo chart:
Mr Mueller said the movie, out next month, showed “the most depraved level of man’s inhumanity to man”.
Mueller has a different story. In an email to us, he states, ‘I just want to say that I never made the statement quoted — to the Sun or to anybody else.’ In addition to being concerned that the invented quote might allow an inference that he was reviewing the film rather than subjecting it to rigorous scientific testing, Mueller says he’s troubled because ‘the words put in my mouth are so prissy and sanctimonious they make my skin crawl.’
In case there’s any doubt, Mueller adds, ‘I hope I am not overly naive about the journalistic standards of the British tabloids... I have sometimes been misquoted in other papers — but in those the reporter at least actually talked to me and was clearly TRYING to get it right. Total fabrication is new to me...’
Original charticle here.
Christopher Hitchens remembers Fleet Street in all its squalor here.
Robert Burns laments man’s inhumanity to man (a phrase I always thought was invented by Mad magazine) here.