News Shopper, Homophobia & Criticism

Adam Tinworth
Adam Tinworth

I’ve been following Darryl of 853’s blogging for years now under his various guises, and once in a while, he comes out with some absolute corkers. This has been one of those weeks.

Yesterday he posted a great dissection of the, uh, [questionable choice that the News Shopper, the south east London paper, made for its letter of the week](http://853blog.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/news-shopper-rewards-anti-gay-rant-with-a-prize/):
> Yes, that’ll be the one that calls gays “perverted”. That’s worth a prize, isn’t it? I wonder what Webster’s Pen Shop thinks about its products being used to reward such an unpleasant little rant? > > It’s someone else’s opinion, but it’s the News Shopper’s choice to reward that opinion with a prize.
But what makes this even more entertaining is the response of whomever is behind the @newsshopper Twitter account, [as detailed in his latest post](http://853blog.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/news-shopper-sponsor-distances-itself-from-anti-gay-rant/):
@[darryl1974](http://twitter.com/darryl1974) You are so way off with so many of the things in your blog entry, particularly regarding our website, it’s impossible to begin.[less than a minute ago](http://twitter.com/NewsShopper/statuses/22254993541 "Fri Aug 27 10:08:03 +0000 2010") via web
Hint: that’s not the way to handle criticism.  
**Update**: I think [this post hits the nail on the head](http://rachelholdsworth.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/news-shopper-rewards-anti-gay-letter-27-8-2010/) about what journos on the News Shopper probably think is going on – and why they’re wrong. Stirring up controversy like this is *not *good journalism. 
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Adam is a digital journalism lecturer, trainer and writer. He's been a blogger for over 20 years, a journalist for 30 and teaches audience strategy and engagement at City St George’s, London.

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