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Super Bowl Sunday! Radio Row! Taylor Swift! It's fair to say the hype has well and truly started for this Sunday's Super Bowl. In a repeat of 2023, the Philadelphia Eagles will take on the Kansas City Chiefs. We don't have the battle between the brothers narrative this time as Jason Kelce has retired, but there are still plenty of stories, not least that the Chiefs are on the hunt for an historic "threepeat". Oh, and did I mention Taylor Swift will be there? I suggest that you do not do a drinking game in which you take a shot every time there is a shot of her. This is a marathon not a sprint people.

I was at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday for Spurs vs Manchester United in the WSL. Not many other people were. The crowd was only about 5,000. Not great in a stadium that holds well over 60,000.

The problem was the kick-off time. The game had been selected by Sky Sports to be shown in its 6.45pm Sunday evening slot. I've heard Spurs Manager Robert Vilahalmn make the point that Sky and other TV companies are putting money into the women's game and that needs to be respected. That includes going along with things like kick-off times. He's absolutely right. However, Spurs, and the women's game in general, are dependent on families to boost the crowd. That time slot is really not going to help attendances.

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Tech Press Leading Elon Musk Reporting

It’s fair to say that stuff has happened since Elon Musk Donald Trump came to power on January 20. As James Ball pointed out on this week’s podcast episode, much of what is taking place is quite simply illegal, yet that is not coming through in the media coverage, certainly not enough.

I don’t particularly want to do the thing of going through New York Times (or any other publication’s) headlines. Suffice it to say that sometimes being explicit instead of obsessing over the process can really help make things clear to the public.

Even consistently referencing DOGE, the acronym of the agency through which Musk has gained access to government, is doing something of a disservice to viewers and readers. DOGE is an entirely made-up entity, a typically Muskian wind-up. He called it the Department of Government Efficiency so it could be abbreviated as DOGE, the same as the joke cryptocurrency.

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From the Podcast

With the arrival of Deep Seek, journalist and author James Ball returns to the show to look at the reality of the Chinese-made model and discuss how AI can impact journalism. It’s clear there are opportunities to use these tools to do better work, but it’s unlikely media proprietors will see their development as anything other than a way to cut costs. We also discuss the latest bits of Elon Musk madness and evaluate how the media is covering it. (Spoiler: mostly not very well.)

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