Opinion piece in today's 'Independent'

[Hawkeyez]

Ah ... The Sun. As any red-wearing scouser will tell you (and a number of Toffees too) that rag isn't fit to wipe the backside of a Man Utd fan ... and that is saying something!

 

Exactly, my parents dont follow the Reds themeselves, but that paper goes nowhere near our house.

[jinnantonnixx]

Nothing on earth will come between white van man, a bacon butty and a copy of the sun.

 

Well, I own a white van (purely a practical vehicle you understand for my hobbies), but I'm vegetarian and I hate the Sun, so 1 out of 3 for me.

 

So perhaps bacon is the key to liking the Sun?

Edited July 11, 2011 by jinnantonnixx

[Roberto]

Ah ... The Sun. As any red-wearing scouser will tell you (and a number of Toffees too) that rag isn't fit to wipe the backside of a Man Utd fan ... and that is saying something!

 

Never mind being a scouser and not buying the sun since hillborough; I'm a gooner and I've not brought it since then. It's not fit to wrap chips in, never mind read.

[Pyroman]

Is Murdoch free to destroy tabloid’s records? | MediaFile

 

I wonder...

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/08/phone-hacking-emails-news-international

Edited July 11, 2011 by Pyroman

[tommej]

Gordon brown is to make a statement at 4.30pm which is apparently going to make this story explode.

 

Should be interesting

[Earthling]

I think rather the opposite; a society gets the press that the political and economic elite decide it should have.

 

So......don't buy the 'political and economic elite' approved newspapers/magazines/tv services etc. No one forces you to......take responsibility.

 

And to illustrate perfectly what I meant by saying 'Society gets the Press it deserves'.......

 

Yes, but did you find anything saucy, ask News of the World readers

 

Last paragraph or so...........“The British public gets the media it deserves, unfortunately.”

 

And that's not where I got the idea from, by the way.

[jinnantonnixx]

Hmmm, nothing on R4's news at 4.

 

Apart of course from Royal protection officers selling royal phone directories for a grand, but that's par for the course these days.

[PiqueABoo]

Gordon brown is to make a statement at 4.30pm which is apparently going to make this story explode.

 

::fizzle:: Sympathy is tempered by the bloke being such a significant part of an Orwellian government that wanted to get as much data as possible about us, especially our kids, in their lovely big databases that half the bleeping country could legitimately access.

 

The most significant story here appears to be the long overdue implicit acknowledgement that the system, politicians, police et al, has (always?) been been sufficiently "bent" to be scared of upsetting the press. A supporting quote from Tom Watson: "I stood up in parliament and, for the first time, I told the truth that dare not speak its name – that we were scared, that the whole of British politics had been terrified into silence, become complicit in a cover-up of the illegal methods of a corporate beast that was out of control."

 

My emphasis. Don't know about you, but I could survive publication of my medical records, bank details, voicemail, e-mail etc. - might be some mild embarrassment, but I've got nothing significant to hide.

 

I'd like to see the word "prosecution" substituted" for "resignation" in the phrases about the characters in quite a few of the sub-plots here.. would restore some faith, but it won't happen though will it?

Edited July 12, 2011 by PiqueABoo

[martyarf]

So......don't buy the 'political and economic elite' approved newspapers/magazines/tv services etc. No one forces you to......take responsibility.

 

That's not really the point. The point is that mass media cannot exist without the consent of power structures, and to remain profitable and viable they must fall in line with that hierarchy's expectations. To say that "no one forces you to" is naive, given that it is a critique of the entire media industry and not some niche section of it which you can avoid. It would be like trying to avoid advertising. It is too pervasive to simply opt-out, and it cannot be solved by consumer activism.

 

Simply because people enjoy reading gossip newspapers doesn't imply that they deserve it. I don't think there has been a grassroots movement which has fostered the culture of invading privacy and spreading salacious details at any opportunity. To quote the obvious source of my criticisms, consent is manufactured. No man is an island, and our wants and desires societally do not spring up apropos of nothing. They are nurtured by our experiences, over which the media has vast and ever-increasing control.

[Earthling]

I tell you what.....if you must be condescending and patronising, use 'dim' instead of 'naive', because for the life of me, I cannot work out what point you're trying to make.

 

What I do know, is that you seem to be over-complicating, over-intellectualising what is a simple, personal choice. If you don't like what the papers print, if you don't like the stories they run, if you don't like what you're being 'fed' by the 'political and economic elite', then don't buy them, don't read them, and don't eat it.

 

It really is as simple as that.......ask half the population of Liverpool.

[martyarf]

I tell you what.....if you must be condescending and patronising, use 'dim' instead of 'naive', because for the life of me, I cannot work out what point you're trying to make.

 

What I do know, is that you seem to be over-complicating, over-intellectualising what is a simple, personal choice. If you don't like what the papers print, if you don't like the stories they run, if you don't like what you're being 'fed' by the 'political and economic elite', then don't buy them, don't read them, and don't eat it.

 

It really is as simple as that.......ask half the population of Liverpool.

 

I think you're vastly underestimating the impact that media has on people by framing it as a choice that we can all opt out of if we so choose. The public relations industry, before the word became negatively associated with the Nazi media system, was happy to call its work propaganda - there is a book by Bernais, one of the founders of the PR industry of that very title. We are vastly more susceptible to media than we care to admit or may even recognise. Given that my critique, as I'm now saying for the third time, is of the entire media establishment, I think you're not quite grasping that consumer activism isn't really the answer. Either that, or you're assuming that I'm only concerned about what information I personally receive, which is neither the point I'm making nor true. I'm concerned about my friends and family, my children and society as a whole.

[PiqueABoo]

This is my clear favourite comment on the story so far: Murdoch’s Frankenstein.

 

Worth a read, seems obvious with hindsight but it didn't cross my mind.