How the tabloid press works.
Or having your cake, eating it and showing it at Olympia CakeEx...
The tabloids are in full outrage mode over the Diana photo published in an Italian magazine, giving them the opportunity to fulminate to mouth-foaming extremes and publish a censored version of the photo, all under the guise of being concerned over the welfare of her sons. More than a little bit hypocritical, as if they had paid less attention to the story doubtless it would have had less impact on the princes. As for the 'Diana Mondays' in the Daily Express, I wish Fayed and Desmond would just drop it.
It is worth noting that death is a far bigger taboo in this country than in much of the rest of the world, including in mainland Europe, and I'm entirely happy with that. Back in '89 I spent Christmas Day at the house of some friends of my parents in southern France, and saw the TV news coverage of the aftermath of the Romanian revolt against the Ceausescus. At prime time French TV news carried footage taken by someone wandering around a mortuary which was filled with bullet riddled, naked (I think) dead bodies, which I'm sure would not have been carried by the BBC or ITN. For me it is not a question of censorship in choosing not to show this sort of thing, be the footage of Europeans, Africans or whoever, but rather what is appropriate.
Your thoughts, please.
Or having your cake, eating it and showing it at Olympia CakeEx...
The tabloids are in full outrage mode over the Diana photo published in an Italian magazine, giving them the opportunity to fulminate to mouth-foaming extremes and publish a censored version of the photo, all under the guise of being concerned over the welfare of her sons. More than a little bit hypocritical, as if they had paid less attention to the story doubtless it would have had less impact on the princes. As for the 'Diana Mondays' in the Daily Express, I wish Fayed and Desmond would just drop it.
It is worth noting that death is a far bigger taboo in this country than in much of the rest of the world, including in mainland Europe, and I'm entirely happy with that. Back in '89 I spent Christmas Day at the house of some friends of my parents in southern France, and saw the TV news coverage of the aftermath of the Romanian revolt against the Ceausescus. At prime time French TV news carried footage taken by someone wandering around a mortuary which was filled with bullet riddled, naked (I think) dead bodies, which I'm sure would not have been carried by the BBC or ITN. For me it is not a question of censorship in choosing not to show this sort of thing, be the footage of Europeans, Africans or whoever, but rather what is appropriate.
Your thoughts, please.
Labels: Media
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on Friday, July 14, 2006 at 9:05 am.
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as a nation we've always been this way.About death,sex....
The red tops are something else though and they really typify our national mores.
They couldn't possibly publish themselves but are completely at ease to report it if someone else has?????So that's ok then.
It's like marmite and baked beans.It's just the way we are and whilst I love France,it's best left for the Germans,...sorry the french
And the 'broadsheets' love trying to claim the moral high ground by reporting on the reporting.
very,very true!
once the red tops have broken the ice,the broadsheets can then publish on the grounds that they're not publishing it per se,but are merely reporting what's going on in the red tops.
Thus their readership can relax,safe in the knowledge that they themselves have not encouraged any impropriety directly.
But we still like to know who's shagging who.
We Brits are so very good at hypocrisy, aren't we?
Re your last sentence, have you seen this one that I posted about a while back? Be warned, it is a very long list and has the scope to engage one's interest for hours on end.
Who reads the Express? I thought all the middle Englanders read the Mail now.
Which probably explains the strategy of putting Di on the front page; to shock all their readers who bought it just to be shocked.
AJH - Beats me. There was an item in the Eye a while back about the Express doing some market testing with existing readers and with Mail readers. Once the test was over, the existing Mail readers were far from won over, while 'half' the Express readers decided they wanted to switch to the Mail...
A thousand years ago one of the Express's ad sales people was the daughter of a former Blue Peter presenter. Nice woman, if a little intolerant of references to sticky back plastic.
Or for that matter, if you couldnt remember the name of one of Dirty Des' 'self help' mags you could buy the Mail where they have an article most days wailing about the said Diana article they didnt risk publishing.
Then they add the names of all the magazines for good measure, in case anyone forgot them sine the last time they mentioned it.
I suppose this is Gonzo journalism a la Daily Mail - rather than writing about oneself instead of the story, this is writing about why one will not write a story. Journalism Will Eat Itself and all that.
I think the Express ought to retort with some Gonzo articles of its own regarding the content of the Mail.
Des could publish a 'damning' article regarding how many breast cancer scares and beach body diets the Mail run necessitating pictures of half naked, but always young and pretty women.
It works for the Telegraph althogh they use A'level results celebrations and Liz Hurley.
Maybe they should do a Wall Street Journal and have stipple artists rather than photographs. I suspect post-modern journalism would be lost on Express readers
The excessive use of women to illustrate articles, magazine covers is always quite amusing. About the only magazine covers with men on the front are gay mags...
I think post modern journalism would be lost on most tabloid journalists and owners. And the Telegraph. But then the 21st century is passing them by anyway, just like the 20th before it.
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