For non-Brits, The Priory is a clinic for (mostly) celebs suffering from various meltdowns, be they alcohol, drug or depression-induced. Without having watched the show, and despite having ruined the final for Kapi, it amuses me how much this woman is going through the standard British media cycle for a celebrity, but in double-quick time. Our media love to build up celebs and elevate them to almost godlike status, especially if they have a backstory that resonates somewhat with the “common man”. See also: Jade Goody, Jordan. But what they delight in more than anything is destroying the very monsters that they have created. When a celeb becomes ubiquitous, particularly in a very short space of time, the media seems to form this collective opinion that they need to be taken down a peg or two. See also: Jade Goody, Jordan. In the case of Susan Boyle, this has been twofold: firstly, there were loads of reports last week that she’d been drunk and swearing in a hotel. If you believe Holy Moly, and I do, this was because a load of undercover journos went to the hotel and deliberately plied her with drinks, so that she’d mouth off at something, anything. This turned the public slightly against her, and probably led to her only placing second in the final on Saturday. And then today we get all of these revelations about her having flipped out after the show, shouting at production staff and generally having a diva moment. And now we learn that she has been admitted/sent to a rehab clinic, and signed in under the Mental Health Act to boot. This is splashed all over the front pages, and from what I’ve read the stories aren’t exactly hugely sympathetic towards Boyle. This isn’t news. This is media abuse, media hounding, media triumphalism. The media is flexing its muscles: showing that they have the power to build you up or to destroy you. Don’t fuck with us, they’re saying. It’s pretty horrible to watch, and unfortunately you can’t avoid it. But such is the British media’s way. And to be honest, it’s also the British public’s way. We love schadenfreude, we really do. And if the person at the eye of the storm has been brought into the spotlight (to confuse metaphors somewhat) a little artificially, then many do take great pleasure in their fall from grace, back into the murky anonymity from whence they came. So it becomes a question of whether this public feeling fuels the media, or is created by it. Personally, I blame the media themselves, but then I wouldn’t like to apportion blame to myself now, would I?
The Guardian - Nine Pakistani students arrested during anti-terror raids released without charge
Well, there’s a fucking surprise.
The media coverage given to these arrests was pretty hefty, including live video on Sky News and BBC News 24, loads of newspaper articles, and the Prime Minister himself stating that a “very big plot” had been foiled.
It really does add to the whole conspiracy theory of the media doing nothing more than parrot the FUD that’s coming out of the various arms of the state, be it government or police.
I’m not exactly a subscriber to that theory, but I do question why the media weren’t themselves a little more hesitant to splash this story all over the front pages and 24-hour news channels.
Let’s see how much coverage this subsequent development is given…
Channel 4’s keeping a track of news that is being somewhat buried beneath all of the fuss that is the G20 summit and protests. I’m relentlessly cynical when it comes to this kind of thing, ever since 9/11 and Jo Moore’s internal government memo that stated it was “a very good day to get out anything we want to bury”. Whenever there’s a major news event I expect something controversial to also be given a press release, but not covered in the media. Well done Channel 4 for highlighting this trend.
Sorry erinshannon, jeralyndwile, woodshavings, et al, but this list has being doing the rounds on email and message boards for the best part of 6 years. It’s not from this year’s Olympics at all. I’m not saying that they weren’t ever said, but they’re definitely not from this year’s sports fest. The one that gave it away for me: Julian Dicks was a football player, yes, but he retired a good few years ago now. If memory serves, he was a real hard nut, and would go in for some absolutely crunching tackles. He could also kick a ball harder than anyone I’ve ever seen since. I hate to be the party pooper, but someone’s gotta do it.
Reblogged from: sundaysmiles
Originally posted on: *rana june
I’m so glad that my limitless cynicism with regards to pretty much everything is finally showing signs of being merited.
Just wanted to follow up on my post last night about the supposed knife crime EPIDEMIC!!!!1!!! here in the UK.
The Enemies of Reason blog has done an excellent job of looking at the official figures and calming things down.
The headline numbers:
258 people in the UK were stabbed to death in 2006-7. That’s two every 3 days, or 5 per week.
3,172 people successfully committed suicide in 2006-7. That’s 9 a day, or 61 per week.
Yet we barely hear of any suicides, unless there is a spate of them in one small area and it can be framed as a “cult”, especially if it’s an “internet cult”.
Given that we’ve had 20 confirmed stabbings of teenagers in London (including 1 more yesterday), plus a few more adults, I genuinely doubt that we’re in the middle of an epidemic of any kind.
As I said yesterday, it’s pure media hype. There’s no Maddie story to cover, as the post puts it:
Do you remember any headlines about ‘Broken Britain’ and a ‘knife crime’ epidemic last summer? No, of course not. The papers couldn’t give a fuck - they were concentrating their resources on the disappearance of a single three-year-old girl in Portugal, relegating violent deaths and the tragic story behind every single one to the ‘news in brief’ columns.
Hopefully, this is my last word on the subject, but it just irritates me so much to see the media getting away with this kind of thing.
I feel like there should be some ominous music playing while reading this article. It’s a typical Daily Mail SHOCK! HORROR! BIG BROTHER! THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END! story which actually falls apart in substance. It has the obligatory anonymous “critics”, use of the passive voice (“have been condemned”) and outright scare-mongering: “Critics say the site can be used by burglars planning escape routes from homes and by terrorists looking for military bases.” They use confusion as a tool too, mentioning Google Earth and some controversy over that, but blurring the lines between Earth and Streetview in an effort to produce some all-encompassing anxiety in its readers. It isn’t until the end of the story, which most people don’t read as far as, that certain counterbalancing facts are given. Such as Google automatically blurring every single face in every photo, or the fact that it is not illegal to post photos of buildings, streets or even people online. Yet another reason to detest the Daily Mail.
- i’m planning my trip to london in the fall and my friend D. told me to watch out for knifings.
and while kind of said in jest, they are actually kind of things to be wary of.
Statistically, knife crime in London is no worse than it was 5 years ago. It’s just that the media are taking an interest in it nowadays. We’ve got no Maddie to fill our summer, so there needs to be some ongoing front-page story to frighten the middle classes.
And any threat of knife crime towards the middle classes has actually reduced. What we’re seeing nowadays is knife crime almost exclusively amongst and between gangs. They’re not stabbing randoms, generally, but each other. It’s been easy for the media to take a “Gosh, aren’t they awful?” stance, even if not explicitly.
What you’re not hearing about is how much gun crime has fallen in London. When was the last time you heard about a shooting? The media is blowing every stabbing out of proportion, almost to compensate for the lack of gun crime.
London is one of the safest cities in the world, especially for tourists who aren’t going to be going anywhere near the dodgy areas. Of course there are bad areas, just like in any urban area. But they’re not as bad as the media wants to portray them as.
Yep, I’m very much a media cynic.
Reblogged from: florajasmine
Originally posted on: notes and snapshots
