Daily Star Gets Nailed for Made-Up GTA Story

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
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Daily Star Gets Nailed for Made-Up GTA Story


A story posted on the Daily Star [http://www.dailystar.co.uk/] about a brand-new Grand Theft Auto game based on real-life killer Raoul Moat has been pulled following an uproar over the fact that the U.K. news site made the whole thing up.

Sometimes it seems like the videogame industry just can't catch a break. Take, for instance, this story posted by the Daily Star with the blaring headline, "Raoul Moat: Videogame, Film and Book Plans Cause Fury." Moat [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Moat], for those who don't know, was a 37-year-old U.K. man who shot his ex-girlfriend, killed her new partner and then shot and critically wounded a police officer before killing himself a few days later during a standoff with police. And while tragic, it would have nothing whatsoever to do with our little world of digital entertainment except for the efforts of the Daily Star, which dug up a fake cover for Grand Theft Auto Rothbury and proclaimed that work on the game was already underway.

"Fury erupted last night over plans for a Raoul Moat book, movie and game... before the man he killed has even been laid to rest," the story began.

"Last night, gaming websites showed the cover of Grand Theft Auto Rothbury - a version of the Xbox hit Grand Theft Auto [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Moat]," it continued. It also claimed that "film companies are lining up bids for the rights" to a movie, although no specifics were given.

As if that wasn't enough, the Star then went to the grandmother of Moat's former girlfriend and asked what she thought of the whole thing. "I can't believe someone wants to make money out of people who have been killed," she said. "It is sick - it's blood money. The game is beyond belief."

And she's right, in a sense; it is beyond belief, because it doesn't actually exist at all. The Daily Star appears to have made the entire thing up. Is it likely that some random guy from the internet got bored and shopped up a GTA Rothbury cover? Sure. But the "gaming websites" allegedly promoting the new game seem to be in remarkably short supply outside of the imagination of Daily Star writers.

The story has since been pulled, an apparent acknowledgment of the fact that some lies go too far even for a site as notoriously trashy as the Daily Star. But it doesn't appear too anxious to give up on such a juicy story; the headline and the fake GTA Rothbury cover are still plastered on the Star's main page, at the top of the "Most Popular" stories list.

via: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=256635?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS]


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Kiefer13

Wizzard
Jul 31, 2008
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This doesn't surprise me at all. The papers here are all full of sensationalist nonsense and don't let facts get in the way of a scandelous story.
 

luvd1

New member
Jan 25, 2010
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Well it'd not like anyone reads the paper anyway. Like the sun you only buy it for the boobs.
 

Deofuta

New member
Nov 10, 2009
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I despise papers like this, drumming up random pointless shit just to get some readers.

Pointless.

Bravo to whoever finally got them to take that stupid thing down.
 

XJ-0461

New member
Mar 9, 2009
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The Daily Star is less reliable than the Sun.

But really, what are facts and journalistic integrity if they get in the way of a good story?
 

Bobic

New member
Nov 10, 2009
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Now that is unbelievably classy, bravo daily star 'journalists'.
 

Proverbial Jon

Not evil, just mildly malevolent
Nov 10, 2009
2,093
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Oh good heavens...

The British papers are off again. I feel so ashamed. The Daily Star is the lowest of the low, even lower than the Sun, News of the World or the Mirror.

To be honest though, anyone who has played any of Rockstar's games would KNOW that this would never happen. GTA might offend many people in many ways but it certainly isn't that insensitive.

Is this publication (if I dare call it that?) really so desperate for news that they have to make this trash up? Sadly there will be people who believe this and that's another blow to the gaming industry with the "games are bad" hammer.
 

Jack and Calumon

Digimon are cool.
Dec 29, 2008
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Gullibility and sick jokes combine to make something... indescribable. Also, do you have to show the guy in the top right of the image? It's kinda messed up, and not something I want to see when drinking my tea.

Calumon: I know there are people who'd do that, but I didn't know people would believe that.
 

tomtom94

aka "Who?"
May 11, 2009
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The cover is in incredibly poor taste, but FUCK ME the Daily Star are stupid.
Oh wait, we knew that already.
 

Natdaprat

New member
Sep 10, 2009
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Wow. Just wow. What did the gaming and movie industry have to do with this incident? NOTHING. But one paper just had to pull it out of thin air and make it look bad. It probably spawned from people supporting him. I could imagine Rockstar have grounds to sue if they wanted to.
 

Daemascus

WAAAAAAAAAGHHH!!!!
Mar 6, 2010
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Some one is insanely stupid at that news paper... And some one is gonna get their ass fired.
 

jimborious

New member
Apr 14, 2009
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I'm not really that shocked by this i was expecting somethinh along these lines to pop up in the next few months i'm just amazed that it happened this soon.

Not that worried about this heaping more crap on the 'everythings videogames fault' bandwagon give the scource, if the stars headline tomorrow was 'the sky is blue' i'd have to go outside and check before believing them.
 

Terramax

New member
Jan 11, 2008
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What pisses me off is that the Daily Star will probably get away with not even having to apologise for this story, let alone not being sued (which they should be).