A regional daily has apologised over a “classless and insensitive” tweet it posted following a footballer’s sudden death.
The Manchester Evening News said sorry over the post referring to Italian player Davide Astori, who was found dead in his hotel room in the city of Udine on Sunday morning.
The 31-year-old defender, who was captain of Italian club Fiorentina and had been due to play that day, began his career at AC Milan alongside current Manchester United player Matteo Darmian.
A cryptic post was published on the MEN’s Manchester United News Twitter account on Sunday with the words “Matteo Darmian will have woken up to some terrible news” appearing above a link to the newspaper’s web page covering goings-on at the club.
The post was described as “one of the worse click baits I’ve ever seen” by one Twitter user, with other journalists also criticising it.
Among them was Daily Telegraph northern football correspondent James Ducker, himself a former MEN news and sports reporter.
He wrote: “Where do you start with this? Classless and insensitive.
“And on a broader point I detest tweets that dangle a carrot to try to lure someone in. Just state what and who it is and stop p***ing people off.”
Freelance sports journalist John Brewin added: “A man with family and friends has died young. That is not a business opportunity.”
After the initial tweet was deleted, the MEN’s account posted an apology to those offended.
It stated: “A tweet was sent from this account regarding the death of Davide Astori which was insensitive and inappropriate. It has been deleted. We apologise for the offence caused.”
In response to the apology, reader Joel McKenna wrote: “One of the worse click baits I’ve ever seen. Disgusting.”
Mr Astori’s death has been attributed to a suspected cardiac arrest, but an investigation has also been launched by prosecutors in Italy.
HTFP has approached the MEN for further comment.
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at
How times have changed. The MEN’s slogan used to be “A Friend Dropping In”.
Report this comment
what sort of individual would post that? Surely not an experienced journalist. Crass seems the right word.
Report this comment
What on earth were they thinking?
Report this comment
I wonder what they’re going to do about it?
Report this comment
Utter disgrace, sackable.
Report this comment
We all make mistakes – we just need to make sure we learn from them. I’m sure the person responsible feels terrible about it.
Report this comment
What does “classless” mean in this context? Is it some sort of Twitter jargon?
Report this comment
Analogue hack. I agree.It is hardly a sacking offence. Just a warning.
But if it got a lot of clicks no-one will give a damn. It does illustrate the lack of proper supervision by an experienced journalist over the web. But then most have been sacked or got out if they could,
Report this comment
Don’t blame the journalist. I can see what he was trying to do, albeit failing spectacularly.
Blame the newspaper groups for bringing us here.Blame them for getting rid of the safety nets that mostly meant quality made it into ‘print’.
My local paper has a couple of trainees writing stories into a ‘box’ on a computer, putting headlines on and pressing a button to make the whole thing go ‘live’,
No-one seems to check, or if they do, they obviously know just as much as the writer about the area, its history, local stories and their history.
So, a journalist made a mistake. I made plenty during three decades but there were older, more experienced heads there to save me.
Report this comment
The reporter who posted this tweet was almost certainly instructed to do so, and quite possibly by somebody with no involvement in editorial. This is how newspapers work now.
Report this comment