Ultimate Media Bias

Top: Photo as published in Spanish daily, AS
Bottom: Screen grab of the same moment from the actual broadcast

We here in America are pretty used to the fact that the news is basically propaganda. Depending on the source, you get selective, slanted facts to reinforce whatever opinion that particular outlet holds. We all know the usual suspects: conservative FoxNews, liberal MSNBC, etc.

I think we need to add AS to that list. AS is a daily sports publication in Madrid, Spain. Apparently, their bias is toward their beloved local team, Real Madrid. So last week, Real arch-rival Barcelona FC was playing Athletic Bilbao in a match in La Liga. Barcelona scored first, before Bilbao evened it up. Then Lionel Messi scored late to seal the match, much to the dismay of all Madrid as Real Madrid is now 5 points back in the standings.

So above is the picture that AS ran following the match. They claimed Barcelona's victory was a joke as the first goal was clearly scored by an offside attacker. Looks pretty obvious, right? Well, Barcelona fans didn't remember it that way. They pulled up their DVRs and did a screen grab of the play in question, pictured below the newspaper pic. Low and behold - the picture published in the paper had DIGITALLY REMOVED AN ENTIRE DEFENDER!!!

AS ran a half-hearted apology the next day:

"We apologise for the error in the computer graphics in the 1-0 incident."

Yeah, anyone could have made such a careless mistake! I am always digitally subtracting Ava or Molly out of our pics by accident!