A snowball rolls from a microphone through nine doorways, growing huge before it reaches a supporter at his breakfast table.

Paper TalkThe High Road Herald

Podcast Remark About Richarlison Grows One Adjective Per Website On Its Way To Tottenham Kitchen Tables

Philippa Crane · Media Editor6 October · Reading time: one pint

The original remark was made on a podcast and is available to listen to in full, a fact only two of the websites mention.

A remark made on a podcast about the expected January departure of Richarlison had been reproduced by nine websites by breakfast on Tuesday, each adding a little to the wording and none adding anything to the facts.

The Herald has traced the story to its source, a single episode of the Here We Go Podcast, in which Fabrizio Romano said he expects the forward to leave in the New Year.

On the first website the exit was expected. On the second it was set. By the third it was poised, and by the sixth the story had acquired a door, which was being closed.

The Herald understands the ninth website did not so much report the remark as inherit it, along with the headline, the photograph and a paragraph about Everton that had been in every previous version.

It was expected when I made the tea. By the time I'd buttered the toast it was practically signed.

The man, who read all nine versions on a phone propped against a marmalade jar, said he felt well informed and could not say on what.

Our correspondent compared the nine pieces line by line and found no new information in any of them, though the third did include a sentence beginning It is understood, which on inspection referred to the podcast.

The man has since opened a tenth.

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Eleven Websites Repeat Ledley King Remark On Luka Vuskovic And Add Nothing Whatsoever To It

The original remark, in which Mr King says he did not get many chances to watch the player, survives in only four of the eleven reports.

A single remark by Ledley King to Hayters TV on the subject of Luka Vuskovic was repeated by eleven separate websites over the course of one morning, with no outlet adding a new fact and every outlet adding a stronger verb.

The Herald has examined the original. Mr King said he had not had many chances to watch the player, that he had seen the reports, and that people were raving about him. He described him as an exciting young player who looks confident.

In the first report, Mr King 'thinks' the player will become a top player. By the third, he had 'backed' him. By the fifth he had 'tipped' him, and by the eighth he was understood to have 'issued a verdict'.

By the eleventh, the remark had become a 'message', although our correspondent could find nobody to whom it had been sent.

Each report contained the same three supporting facts: that the player had been named in the Bundesliga Team of the Season after a loan at Hamburg, that Brighton were said to be interested, and that Roberto De Zerbi would get to see him in pre-season. Each presented these in a different order, as though the order were the news.

A Tottenham man read all eleven in a supermarket car park on Monday, with the engine off and a phone propped against the dashboard. He had not yet gone in.

I thought the second one might have something in it, so I read the third. Then I had to check the others, didn't I.

It is understood that the man's conclusion, reached at around the ninth article, was that Mr King thought the player was good. This was also the conclusion available from the first.

He has not yet gone in.

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