A newspaper story which could scarcely have less information has been an unlikely internet hit. Paolo Di Canio’s appointment at Sunderland, known as The Black Cats (BOOOOOOOOOO!), and subsequent focus on his Fascist (allegedly-ish) views have taken up plenty of column inches in the last week.
Some people have felt that many of those column inches were unnecessary, but few could compare to an article which appeared in the Irish Daily Star.
Trying to extract views on Di Canio, the paper tried to contact the former Sunderland (BOOOOOOOOO!) winger Andy Reid who left the club two years ago and is now back at Nottingham Forest.
“Irish star Andy Reid has no opinion on the Paolo Di Canio controversy.” read the ‘story’.
Phantom.fm morning DJ Joe Donnelly spotted this non-story and with a need to fill his twitter timeline tweeted
And guess what, it was re-tweeted over 200 times, which was in turn re-tweeted, and then re-re-tweeted, picked up by Paddy Power, The Daily Star (UK), Yahoo, and even @kildarejoe was trending in the UK! The story (or non-story) then hit a new level when Joe received a call from ‘Have I Got News For You’ asking Joe if it was OK if they used his non-story about a non-story on their topical satire TV show! All this from a non-story …and now I’m writing about it!!!!!!!!!
So kids, here’s a top tip. If you want your 15 minutes of fame, just SAY NOTHING!
Paul Gibson
Art Director