Woot-ton: Struggling to cope with large events

If you thought that one of the few glimmers of comfort in the death of Amy Winehouse was that the News Of The World was no longer around to "react", there's still Dan Wootton to cope with.

A quick look at his twitter feed shows a little foot being stamped that broadcasters were still leading the news with the Neo-Nazi terrorism in Norway:

I agree RT @jamesro47: Terribly depressing news about amy winehouse and utterly remarkable neither itv or bbc bulletins lead on it

Winehouse's death was a horrible event (and one covered in some depth, certainly by the BBC) but thinking it should be the lead story over the near hundred deaths in Norway shows a lack of perspective that perhaps shouldn't surprise us.

Wooton got some stick, as a few minutes later, he tweeted this:

Wish we could debate the news agenda without personal abuse. People are allowed to express their opinions on what should lead the news.

Waaah! Not fair! Stop picking on me!

Although Wootton had got some personal abuse - people helpfully pointing out he's a bellend and a total clown, that sort of thing - most of it was just angry.

Like the tweet from @Im_MelanieMouse:

@danwootton quite frankly with that opinion you shouldn't be allowed to work in the news industry. You are a disgrace to real journalists.

Wootton didn't actually manage to put together a counter-argument (mainly because there isn't one) so instead decided to show that he actually understands the news industry even less than we thought:

@j4ylw Well Sky News did. And the BBC News Channel for a period

Apparently Dan doesn't understand the difference between a channel covering breaking news, and a bulletin collecting the main stories of the day for a general audience.

To make matters worse, Sky decided that Dan would be the best person to review the papers this morning.

Yes, Sky News wound up with Dan Wootton trying to offer a view about the Norway shootings. To be frank, he wouldn't have been first choice if the news had only been about Amy Winehouse.

How dreadful was it? Believe it or not, it was so bad that Gordon Smart took to Twitter to berate Dan:

@danwootton "I" "I" "I" "I" , "I've been on a flight when tragedy happened", "I got stick on Twitter" - FFS!! 92 dead and Amy gone? Mawkish

Dan responded:

@gordonsmart Know you struggle with hard news. Get back to Kasabian and Noel ass kissing.

Again, you'll note, he doesn't have an argument as such.

Gordon Smart again:

@danwootton how's that campaign to get Blue back on the radio going? Is it really a former showbiz ed's job to be on discussing a massacre?

Wotton tried a response:

@gordonsmart Yes yes I know you hate pop music. Weird given you edit a pop column. Think that was Sky News' decision, not mine.

You know you're in trouble when Gordon Smart is able to drop on you from the moral high ground. For Wootton to blame Sky News for asking him in the first place is weak - yes, a terrible decision from The House Of Burley but, particularly after Twitter had given you a slapping for your weak judgement on the two stories, you perhaps should have declined gracefully. Just because you're invited on to a programme doesn't mean you're obliged to go.

[Thanks to readyartbrut for the tip]