So, I was mapping out a detailed post around the phone – hacking and the narrow focus of the rapidly accelerating nature of the press related brouhaha when it was blown apart by the Murdoch execution of his problem paper. Like a grimy firework rocket finally loosed forth it flopped out with an empty pop as the News of the World slipped through the gap in the grate and into the sewer of history.
Around people stand in a mixture of bemusement and smug superiority as the sticky pink flotsam is rounded up by the overweight man in a day-glo jacket. Nothing to see here folks.
At the turnstile a greasy haired man is looking anxious and studying his stock, while in the circus tent the animals are getting restless. And down at the back office, surrounded by paper balls and picked out by a bare light swinging from side to side, the balding pate and saggy face of the top man is flush and edgy.
Uncertainty is shimmering amongst those outside, but for just a minute the audience has seen a chink in the seedy sound and light show. For just a moment the loincloth has swung loose, and the henpecked face of the puppet master peers out, ghastly and leering. But in the heady of fug the puppets are coming loose.
Even better, the start of an opportunity for real change has actually been taken hold of, with parliament rediscovering some sturm and drang so long lost it seemed extinct rather than in hibernation.
Like all revolutions it’ll only be any good if it lasts. The distortion in the media is of greater worry to me than the phone hacking, and if the promised commission has enough teeth to actually take down those that are beyond the pale (you know who I’m looking at) then we might actually get somewhere. So many ifs.
The Arab spring has rolled into a tetchy impasse, but there is a small chance this could be the beginning of the end of a different type of tyrant in the UK. If, though. All sorts of articles about at the moment, but as this one points out – the bankers largely got away, the MP’s expenses slipped into the background, why not this too?
If we want to see a future where people can speak their mind – speeches like this by Kumar Sangakkara – then we need a press that’s responsible as well as free.
And I had mentioned Nick Davies’ Flat Earth News. If you’ve not read it yet, read it now.
Tags: Media, Politics, Revolution
July 19, 2011 at 21:18 |
Having just watched the House of Commons grilling of the Murdochs, I was reminded of the Wizard of Oz where behind the fearsome projection is a sad and wizened old man.