Tuesday 11 September 2007

Witch hunt


I choose to stray into a controversial area, away from the world of the government's destruction of the NHS, and into the world of the tabloid media and the McCanns. Whatever one thinks of recent events, I think that one would struggle to defend the pathetic behaviour of the media throughout. SJHoward points out just one example of the rank hypocrisy and lack of logic shown by the media, in this case the BBC.

The McCann story is a great case study in how the modern media operates, and how sensationalist and dumbed down current affairs coverage has become. The media jumped on the story, milked it and has now started to turn on the McCanns in their rather typically incoherent and inconsistent manner.

The media has continued to set people such a bad example in a way that condones the judging of others, without even being sure of any facts or any details of the complex situation that is being judged so righteously. The continuous speculation shows a complete lack of respect to those involved in this sad affair, and could be argued to be downright rude at times.

As a human being I believe we should always give the benefit of any doubt to people that are accused of anything. It is also not fair to speculate on their innocence or guilt unless one is well informed on the facts; in the McCann case I would argue that no one in the media is anywhere near the facts, so they should firmly put a sock in it and show some damn respect. Our legal system means that people have to be proven guilty, and there is a very sensible reason behind this that some people would do very well to remember.

Whatever the ins and out of events, there is absolutely no doubt that the media have shown their true, and rather shabby colours in the last couple of weeks.

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