Sky Sports Forced To Apologise For Misrepresenting John Terry Interview

I missed this earlier on account of being asleep (pesky time zones). John Terry was asked earlier today about his thoughts on the protracted Luka Modric saga, and he answered that it he'd love to see him playing for Chelsea but that it would be disrespectful for him to comment further on the situation. Sounds fine, right? Terry was just being diplomatic and not getting himself involved in the Modric mess.

Wrong!

Wrong wrong wrong!

Somehow - and I'm really not sure what on earth would cause anyone to read into Terry's comments this way - the interview was reported as the Chelsea captain calling Luka Modric disrespectful. I wish I had saved the old Sky Sports link, because it's gone now, but the words have spread like wildfire throughout the internet, to the point that Sky have been forced to issue an apology to Chelsea FC, which somewhat amusingly reads:

At skysports.com we have a reputation for the honesty and integrity of our reporting. Unfortunately we fell short of those standards with our coverage of John Terry's interview with Sky Sports News on July 19 during which the Chelsea captain was asked to comment on Luka Modric.

You'll note that they don't say just what that reputation for honesty and integrity actually is. Anyway, it's tempting to slam Sky for messing this up, but this sort of thing is symptomatic of a media (and therefore, reader) culture that looks for the most controversial soundbites and angles to take on the issues of the day. Blaming any one outlet for a systematic cultural problem seems a bit silly to me. Good on Sky for apologising, anyhow. I wonder if the rest of the world reporting on the story will notice. Probably not.

[Obligatory phone-hacking joke].