Seriously.
I can’t believe what I’m having to listen to/read/see.
I am not a political being at all, but the eulogizing of David Cameron in the majority of Britain’s press makes me distrust this country’s ability to govern itself. Day after day, I am subjected to some the most partial cloying reportage under the tattered banner of ‘free press’. Witness today’s article in the Evening Standard, by Vassi Chamberlain:
Okay so SamCam is not quite first lady yet but here’s one prediction we can unilaterally call: the frumpy political wife is out. Our Jackie O and JFK moment is nearly upon us. Finally, we can boast of the loveliness that is likely to be our new prime minister’s wife.
Does that girl ever look tired? Does she have a bad angle? Does she ever dress badly? Just look at last night: while Sarah Brown looked neat but dull in a short red mac and Miriam Clegg dowdy in cardi and messy hair, a pregnant Mrs Cameron was luminous, pretty and groomed in her purple shift.
Disgusting on several grounds. First: utterly subjective. Second: utterly irrelevant. Third: Criminally chauvinist (women beware women). Fourth: widely distributed! The Evening Standard is given out f. o. c near tube stations, a welcome piece of tat to fill the commute home with. Really, keep your fanzine pap to yourself in future, Chamberlain – you demean the profession of journalism with your puerile adolescent simperings.
And the Standard’s article is the soft stuff, the filler, at the other extreme we have the font page of Murdoch’s Sun (see picture), so desperate to hammer its colours to the mast that it seems to have forgotten that its primary function is to report current events and has turned itself into a Tory jazz mag.
God I’m angry. Give me news, not shit opinion. Not your opinion.
This election has totally swung on what the majority of the right wing press in this country has churned out and while it is a shame that a section of the public hasn’t developed their own point of view and choose to vote according to what the Sun tells them, I vow to never again, even in jest, turn to a free paper or Murdoch ordained news source for my information on how the world is turning.
Sadly I can’t vouch the same for my compatriots. And therefore, we can pretty much welcome in 5 years (at least) of Tory rule.
Stefanie Moore 