One aspect that always comes through is the confrontational nature of English News Reporting. I have already commented on the use of the words “controversy” and “crisis”, as ways that newspapers and TV try to spice up a story, without having to put in any content.
The nature of the reporting of the “poppies on football shirts” certainly lived up to the standard. This was all the more important as it involved “Foreigners” and even worse “FIFA”, against whom England now regard themselves as having a permanent casus bellus (“cause of war”).
The “Poppy War” ended when it was agreed that poppies could be worn on the players’ sleeves. According to at least one commentator, FIFA were forced to “capitulate”. Great cheers from the crowds and general self-congratulations and crowing over a defeated enemy.
I know that I have been in Switzerland for too long. There is a 35 point questionnaire that tests for “Swissness” and my kids say that I would have passed this even before I came here. And in my Swissness, I would have described the “Poppies on the Sleeves” as a sensible compromise.
The problem for the newspapers, of course, is that “FIFA and England Football association shake hands on a sensible compromise” does not make for a good headline, or satisfy the English readers need to feel that they are initially victims and ultimately victors over a continental conspiracy.
---------------------------------------------------On another of “The Topics of the Day”, the “Eurozone” crisis, Angela Merkel is not always popular and was recently criticised for her “intransigence” (on the point of not allowing the European Central Bank to be the lender of last resort).
Intransigence. What a great word. You are certainly being told what to think on this issue. She is WRONG. Not just wrong, the woman is a fanatic. She is stubborn beyond belief. How dare she stall the general consensus that has been carefully and painstakingly developed? and don’t even think that there could be another opinion.
The trick for the reader, if he wishes to remain sane, is not to believe all this journalistic gumpf. Let’s try out different words for one moment, which describe the same event, but have a different effect.
Perhaps Angela Merkel was “holding a firm line”, “sticking by her convictions”, “Resolute” (Yes – I like resolute” – I like to think of myself as resolute) “resisting the drift down to the lowest common denominator.”
Never let it be said that the English press doesn’t have an opinion on the issues of the day. But these opinions don’t have to be yours.
-------------------------------------------------------Lastly for this week’s blog, I was watching parts of the statements being made at the Leveson Inquiry this week (Press hacking and other practices). I could not help feeling that we were hearing of an ancient ritual practiced throughout the ages. The public loves its ounce of sleaze, the photos secretly taken, the latest gossip about some film star or the relevation of some public figure acting in a way that is politically incorrect, the ritual humiliation of some public figure, all in the interest of “Press Freedom” and “Public Interest”. Of course, this is nothing to do with truth or news, but the bringing down of someone who has “got above themselves”.
Such stuff is not new. Hangings were the traditional public events that the ordinary folk were allowed to enjoy, brought to its pinnacle in the French Revolution, where crowds gathered to watch Madame Guillotine wreak her vengeance.
Let me take you back further, to 2,000 years ago. We learn with (fake) horror of the Roman Games. We can picture the cruelty, the carnage, and the Emperor deciding who would live and who would die, while the lions prowl around the half eaten bodies, usually of Christians. All this happens, while the crowd roars for more.
The News of the World and its peers have done little more than supply a 21st century Roman Games. Denied public hangings and denied the spectacle of seeing Christians being torn apart by the Lions, the English public have to be satisfied with half-truths and lies about the lives of people whom they will never meet, but who have fame and most likely more money than they do.
If such stories cannot be found easily then they must be created or invented. Go out and find it. After all, it was the job of the Roman Army to bring back the defeated armies, some of whom would find new careers as Lion food. And if you can’t get a job as soldier in the Roman Army, become a journalist with the News of the World. Oh dear – that option, at least, is no longer available.
By the way, you will notice that I have once again avoided taking any sides on the issues / crises / controversies described. Just an innocent observer, that’s me.
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