This post was going to be quite good. But it isn’t. Sorry about that, but let me explain.
You see, it was going to include the front pages of the days tabloids. After my post last night about the Suffolk Murder case, I was hoping to review what the papers had done in response to the CPS’s request for responsible journalism. However, the website that displays the pages on the day they come out has now expired – meaning you have to pay. I don’t expect anyone to do this, so I’ll have to just go on memory from the day.
Turns out the red tops were very responsible indeed. The front pages were well behaved. A little too well behaved I think, to the point it was almost humorous to see. They were making it blatantly obvious that they were being good girls and boys, at least for today. Between you and me, I don’t think it will last.
The inside pages were an early reminder of what the tabloids might aim towards. The Daily Mirror’s report on the story had “RIPPER” written above the photo of Steve Wright – the accused. The careful balance of public interest v contempt of court/human rights is regularly crossed. At the moment, I think the coverage is a little sharp, but I’d expect it to take a tame turn when the trial of the defendant – possibly Steve Wright – draws near.
Keeping on the same subject, but deviating slightly, I want to talk about the media’s new found love of Myspace. When the Suffolk suspect Tom Stephens was arrested, all the media outlets – particularly the BBC – used his myspace page as their source of info on the man. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is the first time that the web has been used to gather information on a subject in this manner. His page was swiftly deleted from myspace. I’m curious to who decided this. Was it Tom*? If so, fair enough. But if it wasn’t, I wonder who. If it was myspace themselves (i.e. good ol’ Rupert Murdoch), then I question their motivation. Innocent until proven guilty, of course, so why delete a profile that didn’t breach the T&C’s of myspace?
And that’s not the only story: Myspace is hitting the news in many ways this week. A poor man (left) from the North-East has been booted out of his new home in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria due to comments made on his Myspace page. Steve Beall called the town, bluntly, a shithole. The residents of the town trashed the Thorntons that he was taking charge of as manager.
Thorntons issued this rather cute statement:
“We wish everyone in Barrow-in-Furness a merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. As a gesture of goodwill, anybody visiting our store until Christmas will receive a free chocolate.”
My brother defends his choice to not ‘jazz-up’ his myspace page because he says you never know when it will come back to bite you. I guess he’s right.
I’m still keeping mine though.
*Tom Stephens, I mean – not the annoying little Tom who is everyone’s ‘friend’ on myspace. The little punk. Friends of mine actually believe that lovely Tom runs the whole empire…blissfully unaware that it’s a great big corporate superpower run by Rupert. Grrr.
Despite all its annoyances (which I’ll no doubt talk about another time), you really can’t beat rolling news when a story is about to unfold. The Suffolk Murders reached a major point tonight with the announcement that a 43 year-old man named Steve Wright (left) has been
