Press In Stupidity Shocker

dahamsta · 08-04-2005 10:35AM #1

How ironic is it that Reuters corrects Dougal's surname /incorrectly/ while poking fun at the Post for (in all seriousness) listing him as long shot candidate for the Pope? There's this new thing called a "search engine" guys...

Race to Succeed Pope Includes Even the Fictional
Wed Apr 6, 2005 09:39 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The race is on to succeed John Paul II as pope and bookmakers are already getting in on the act. But not all the candidates are quite what they seem.

According to The Washington Post on Tuesday, gamblers can back Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi of Italy at odds of 11 to 4. "Or they can take their chances on Father Dougal Maguire of Craggy Island, Ireland, a long shot at 1,000 to 1."

But the Post's reporter was unaware of a key detail that, generous odds aside, would make canny bettors take a pass on Father Dougal.

He is a fictional character.

More accurately spelled McGuire, he appears in the hit British television comedy "Father Ted," which follows the antics of an eccentric group of Catholic priests on a small island off the west coast of Ireland.

The clueless Dougal is described by Britain's Channel 4 television as "one of God's 'special' creatures," but even so, he is not thought likely to assume the throne of St. Peter.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

Eoghan-psych · 08-04-2005 10:53AM

dahamsta wrote:

{Reuters extract} McGuire

McGuire? Come on boys! What the hell is up with that?

[EDIT - well, finish]
Is there that little going on with the world that this actually qualifies for a story? It's the sort of thing a parish newsletter ot "regional paper" would write.

MorningStar · 08-04-2005 12:11PM

I am getting really freaked out about inacurate reporting in the media here. While listening to Newstalk about the brinks raid they claimed the raid was in Coolock, Skelly's lane, Beaumont and Raheny. It in fact was on the Kilmore Road in Artane. The body found in Ballybough was also said to have been that of a white person too.
Headline are always misleading but the content seems to be getting shaky overall. Is there a way to actually complain.

stevenmu · 08-04-2005 01:00PM

Not as ironic as you correcting Reuters /incorrectly/ or the fact that a "search engine" turns up McGuire being used all over the net, perhaps most authouritivly at Channel4

dahamsta · 08-04-2005 01:08PM

Actually the results for maguire/mcguire are 340/351. My scripts say "maguire".

adam

stevenmu · 08-04-2005 01:28PM

The Father Ted : Complete Box Set ,the IMDB and wikipedia here and here disagree with your scripts, I think I'll take the word of 4 respectable sources ahead of 340 random ones.

Bottle_of_Smoke · 08-04-2005 01:36PM

stevenmu wrote:

Not as ironic as you correcting Reuters /incorrectly/ or the fact that a "search engine" turns up McGuire being used all over the net, perhaps most authouritivly at Channel4

hehehehe sh|t buzz

dahamsta · 08-04-2005 01:41PM

Sure there's no more authoritative source than the Craggy Island Examiner!

(Actually, to be fair, a lot of the priest's names in the CIE don't tie in with the names in the scripts - rather sadly, I had to research this because I use a particular subset in my network naming scheme - but I'm in the middle of moving atm so I ain't going searching for them to prove my point. Maybe you're right and my pedantry has backfired. Obviously it's hugely important to you, so I'll concede defeat to your superior anal retentiveness for the moment. Either way, the Washtington Post writer is still a moron.

)

adam

Press In Stupidity Shocker

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