Greetings once again my friend(s) !!
Tis been a while !
Recent events in the UK have once again prompted me to take up my pen - or keyboard in this case ! I will start out by saying that I have no particular love for the man in question, whom I shall name in a few moments, but it is the wider situation which intrigues me, and perhaps you might let me know what you think ?
The English soccer manager, or rather he who held that onerous position until last week, was a chap by the name of Sam Allardyce. As I said I have no particular like, or indeed dislike, for this man, but I very much have a problem with the way in which he was dismissed from his job. That is not to say that he didn't deserve it, I just have a problem with the way in which he 'met his fate'
Basically he was 'entrapped'. He was set up by the editor of the Telegraph newspaper, who got a few lads to pose as someone they were not, and get him to say things he should not have said. Again, this is not about who he was, nor what he said. It is about the editor of a Broadsheet, not a tabloid, setting out to 'frame' this guy. Apparently there is a lot of corruption in football (wow - now that is news !!!) and they were leading the posse in ridding England of these people.
As a one time member of the Media, and one who still works very closely with it, I have some strong views on how strong the media can become, if unchecked. What's that I hear you say ? 'You can't check the media! - they are our only way of finding out about the truth - they expose all the wrongdoings of our corrupt society'
Ah yes, I reply ! Perhaps - but who polices the police ? Most are aware that the media can be used in some pretty terrible ways, to advance all sorts of agendas - just look at the likes of the Murdoch Machine and Fox News.
The media in the UK has become pretty powerful and now might take some amount of grit and energy to bring it to heel. Just look at recent scandals where so called journalists 'hacked' into the phones of people, some even deceased, to find a 'juicy' story. To this writer that is even more heinous than going through people bins to pry even closer. Is this the type of journalism we need ? It is perhaps, what we deserve, but is it what is needed ? Which came first, the Chicken or the Egg ?
The death of Princess Diana was another 'black day' for the media. There was outrage at the fact that her car crashed at high speed, trying to avoid the 'paparazzi' who were trying to get photos of her, with Dodi al Fayed. Is it possible, do you think, that the ones who voiced most outrage at this invasion of her privacy, would have bought the same magazine that carried those self same photos ? Mmmmm
Remember Matthew Kelly ? Again a person who this writer had no particular opinion on, one way or another, but one of the red tops ran a story on him years ago, revealing he was a paedophile. This was completely untrue. However, the fire was lit, the smoke started billowing and because some little bastard of an editor, or so called journalist, ran the story, the fickle people believed the story and Mr. Kelly's life was forever changed. He lost his life. His family. His name. Everything ! Now, I hear you say that he could have sued. He did ! and he won ! Something like £300,000 - but what did that do for him ? Nothing was the answer - though I do agree it is better to have it, than not. You see, the damage that was done by that headline and article, could not be undone ! Ever ! People believe that bad stories, not the good - and don't wanna know about the truth. Lazy, vindictive, irresponsible lies - and here is the rub, which you may or may not know about - Newspapers, and indeed other forms of media, can insure themselves against being sued for libel - so, in this case, all the newspaper had to do was pay a bigger premium on their insurance the following year !!
So, what type of newspaper do you want to read, or perhaps, what type of society do you want to live in ? There are, of course, many hundreds and thousands of great journo's and editors who do fantastic work, but we do, today, live in a society, that tolerates this behaviour - and this is where I have a problem on an unfettered press. Exactly how we 'fetter' them I do not know - perhaps we could take away such insurance and maybe strictly discipline those who do not do their job properly.
I suspect, that like most industries, the answer can only come from within the media itself
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