Arsenal News » Cesc “verbal agreement” hoax one of the most successful yet
The hoax story run by Cardena Ser Radio that Cesc had reached a verbal agreement with Barca to join them this summer must be counted as one of the most successful yet from the Spanish hoax factory that churns these tales out.
In the olden days it was generally agreed that you could only run a hoax story once, but as with the “Arshavin didn’t realise he would lose all this money in tax” story (now replaced with Arshavin and Wenger don’t get on) the last year has proved that it is possible to keep even the simplest of hoax stories running over and over again.
The question is why? Why do people pick up such an old story and keep repeating it?
Clearly one reason is that there are now so many blogs willing to cut and paste any story that suggests that Arsenal are in trouble. Since the club clearly isn’t in trouble (just about the only club making a profit and with repayable debts, just about the only one of the big clubs with a young rather than seriously aging squad, and hence the only only club with a sustainable growth policy, and just about the only major English club that currently meets the UEFA criteria for entry into future Champs Leagues), it is necessary to clutch at straws.
But it is not just the blogs that ran the “verbal agreement” hoax story. Even such august newspapers as the Telegraph picked it up and ran with it.
So here’s some reasons why they do it…
1. Stories like this are a deliberate attempt to destabilise Arsenal, and those who print them when they are still live are clearly part of that movement. You can’t get away with saying, “I ran it because it was news” because blogs and papers and radio stations can pick anything they like as news. Untold didn’t touch the story until the hoax had run its course – and we didn’t seem to run out of news. No one pointed a finger because we didn’t mention it at all. And I don’t think we looked particularly stupid because we were talking about other things.
2. It is quick and easy give-away news – you don’t have to do any research, you just cut and paste everyone else’s story.
3. It is a great lead in to further speculation. In this particular hoax the normal line was to say, “it is believed that Fabregas has decided to leave Arsenal because…” and then make up some reasons. What was so clever about this particular hoax was that virtually everyone picked up on the same reasons that were “believed”.
Hoaxes are great weapons when you have a willing bunch of clones who are far too busy to go and investigate a proper story. You come up with the hoax, plant the story, and let the unthinking drones do the job for you.
Arsenal supporters who really want to support the club could do worse than register on the Manchester United forums and start running the story that the Glazers are planning to liquidate Man U the moment they have redeemed the PIK loans – which they will be able to do by selling off the training ground and the 100 year old Trafford ground and pocketing the money.
They will then make a tidy profit (since the club didn’t cost them anything) and it is unlikely anyone will be able to take over the club since they won’t be able to afford the “football debts” which have to be paid before the club can be re-admitted to the league.
Now that’s a story worth cut and pasting.
(c) Tony Attwood 2010
PS I thought the second half last night was quite jolly. And even the guy a couple of rows behind me who hates Bendtner shut up for a while.
AND NOW, IN OTHER NEWS AND MADE UP BITS…
- Arsenal and the Cult of Personality – read it here
- Arsenal 100 years ago – read the rather amusing and quite adventurous MAKING THE ARSENAL novel click here
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