In places like North Korea or the Peoples Republic of Commy China or one the many terrorist 'Stan nations journalism is a state run industry. This means that whoever controls the government also controls the information that is passed to the people. Which of course means a system of propaganda and agenda lead misdirection, favoring the ruling and undermining and silencing it's critics. I think that many of you would agree, that is a far from ideal situation.
In sensible English speaking nations such as England or The U.S or Canada, there is such a thing as "the freedom of the press". This means that good old Johnny Journo can print any story he likes about the current government, so long as it proves to be in the public interest. This means that if a politician or state official does something that may be detrimental to the well being of the nation or body that person represents, and therefore may cast aspersions on said nation or body, said incident is reported on, without regard for the consequences. I think that many of you would agree, that is not at all far from an ideal situation.
Now however western journalism, at least in the United Kingdom has come to a cross roads. Depending on what happens with the phone hacking scandal, it will either walk proudly on in it's noble quest for truth, or it will be coerced into submission and silenced by the stomping jack boot of an Orwellian government... Some powerful political imagery I want you to dwell on there for just a second...
Our proud boys and girls of the British tabloid press have for decades risked life and limb to bring us, the Great British public, the real stories of interest each and every Sunday. And not the soft suffering of people in foreign lands (not our problem anyway) or the fluffy corruption of big business (if Starbucks are evil, then why do they sell duffins, my favorite portmanteau snack?). Oh no, these restless renegades of the red-tops brought us stories that weren't always easy to hear. These proud purveyors of paper and pun didn't protect us from the truth when it reared it's ugly head. Where featherweight "journalists" like Pilger or Hitchens dare not tread, these freedom fighters of Fleet Street danced with disregard to bring us, the Great British public, the hard hitting truths. Shattering our illusion of freedom and decimating our very sense of being.
Who could ever forget the harrowing affairs of Jude Law when his then girlfriend, tepid actress and attractive vacuum Sienna Miller may or mat not have cheated on him. Or the brutal time when Mick Jagger's daughter may or may not have had sex in a night club.
Stories that touch us like that don't come around very often, stories that change a nation and shape its people. Real, genuine, hard hitting tales that strike a resonance with us, the Great British public. And through out them all the tabloid media has been there, to hold us, to wrap its papery blanket of righteousness around us and tell us that it's going to be OK.
But now, all of that could be coming to an end.
I ask you honestly, can you really condemn a tabloid paper for its spurious ethics? Have we fallen so far through the looking glass that we expect our journalists to employ morality and personal emotion to the way they report truth. Can you really sit there and tell me, that truth and fact are objective? What we, the GREAT BRITISH public, demand is no less than concentrated honesty. Unlike Communist countries or militant dictatorships who have there "news" diluted by the fear of repercussion, we are blessed to live in a land where any of our 4 tabloid national dailies can print a story about a rather shit actor who may be being cheated on by his rather shit actress girlfriend without fear of being shot in the face or locked in a tower.
I think we all agree the work of our tabloid press is important and for the good of humanity must continue. But I also understand that in the eyes of many the red-tops crossed a moral and ethical boundary. But I stress this to you, ethics and journalism have no place together. The very moment you enter something as objective as ethics in to a story you have lost its sincerity. The moment emotion intrudes on fact, verity is lost. Were they right to hack the phones of Milly Dowler's grieving family in order to spoon feed sentimental mush down the throats of its readers and long out a horrific incident for no other reason than to increase it's readership by playing on the heart-strings of caring people in a fashion so gross that it turns even the strongest of stomachs... arguably no. But they did it in an attempt to bring us truth, and truth is all that matters to the noblemen of the tabloid table.
I leave you with this, is it right to cut open the chest of another man? "Why no, of course not" i hear you say... well what if your a surgeon and you're performing open heart surgery? Makes you think don't it.
Woe.
@defmoss83
im very sad that milly dowler went missing but now poor little verity is lost n'all. .
ReplyDeleteseriously blogs- you pick the golden line every time.... you are in my top 5 funny people ever (sorry McIntyre, to 6 you go). genuine LOL my friend!
DeleteI wonder why The Sun didn't publish anything about race horse trainer Charlie Brooks and his love of lesbian porn?
ReplyDeleteIt's not as if they had to hack anyone for the information?
i dare say its because there an absolute shower of shit sandwiches Jacks! I just really hope when the inevitable happens and Coulson and the other members of the phone-hacking-fun-bunch are given a token meagre sentence of 32 days in a 3 star prison - the whole country opens it eyes and kick off the revolution... and if not tht then i hope it gets satired really really really lots!
DeleteSNH5.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, my friend.
The way I see it, from the outside looking in, is that the red tops, vile as they are, fill a need. Many bemoan them, persecute them even, yet these same Joe Q Public haters are keeping them in business. They lap up the shit that they are being spoon fed, They demand to know the ins and outs of the latest quasy reality celeb, who they are boinking, who they'd rather be boinking and what kind of boinking is been done on the side.
As Paul Weller onced mused in his The Jam days;
The public gets what the public wants....
As long as there's an appetite for such junk it shall continue to be peddalled, but let's not equate something as important as Freedom of Speach to anything, and I mean anything the Red Tops distribute.
To call any of them a newspaper is gross misadvertising.
Glad i could spark a debate... although truth be told H i'd rather be sparking one of them funny dutch cigarettes. #drugref.
ReplyDeleteIts a complex issue the whole thing and my flippant metaironic dallying has done nothing but muddy the water further - a true woe.
But you raise a great point H and via a Paul Weller lyric, which is double points. As long as there is a market for shit shit will be produced... i see 2 options, either some sort of mass education or extermination - im fine with either.
But i think what i was trying to say is it is brilliant that tabloids have the right to publish shit about anyone, but it is abhorrent how the freedom is used as a free-pass to being-a-total-cunts-ville.
its triple threat of freedom of speech vs right of privacy vs social responsibility.... that is a conceptual threesome i wouldnt mind getting involved in!!! weeeey! bonking!
Great reply RBA, far better then anything I could muster, even with Paul Weller lyrics, must be all of those Dutch Ciggies I've puffed over the last few decades. #byebyebraincells.
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