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July 8, 2009

Lyanair takes newsdesks for a ride

By Grey Cardigan

One of the worst aspects of what has become known as Churnalism is the lazy way that even our so-called quality newspapers conspire with the PR industry to fill their pages with obvious bollocks.

Let’s take the latest missive from Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary, who suggested that to increase capacity by 20 per cent and to further reduce fares, some passengers could in future fly seated semi-upright on some kind of bar stool. Now that’s obviously a non-starter, if only on safety grounds.

Also complete hogwash were his recent brainwaves to charge passengers for sick bags or for using the aircraft lavatory – all patent nonsense, but all religiously reported as fact by newspapers which should know better.

Why will no-one stand up and say: “Hey, hang on a minute. This is just O’Leary blagging free publicity by making outrageous statements. It obviously doesn’t stand up to any kind of sensible scrutiny, and our readers will all know that, so we’ll just spike it”?

Is the Daily Telegraph that desperate for a Page 5 second lead?

 

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