Let us not exaggerate how tweeting affects media coverage

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Barton's tweeting may have given him power but not many footballers can follow his example

It is not often that you read an article by a football player that makes you sit up and say, now this is something that is new, maybe I need to change my long settled opinion. But this morning, having read Joey Barton in the Times, I must confess I did a double take.

Like most of the world, I have, until this moment, taken the view that Joey Barton is one of those bad boys of football almost beyond redemption. I did meet him once at the paddock in Ascot where he came over as very knowledgeable about racing, but beyond that my knowledge about him is what I have learnt from the media.