A lot has happened in the past few weeks. The melting pot of lies and corruption that constitutes the News of the World phone-hacking scandal (and it’s parent’s parent Corporation in general) laid the foundations for a tumultuous week of news that has perhaps been one of the best illustrations of how the way in which things are reported and received has changed in recent years.
First things first – phone hacking. Should anyone really have been surprised? The most shocking element of the whole situation is the time it’s taken for the details to emerge and for the general public to react – the fact that it actually happened, disgusting nonetheless, should probably have been anticipated. Tabloid newspapers do not exactly have a squeaky-clean record when it comes to journalistic professionalism and News of the World was definitely no exception. If you’ve been following the current investigation you’ll have heard about the backhand payments and ‘gestures’ – this is a crime supposedly covered by the “Prevention of Corruption Act”, a piece of legislation which in all honesty seems hopelessly optimistic.
It seems that as each day goes by, one more senior Tory has to scramble their way out of increasingly murky waters. The part of this that maddens me the most is that a newspaper can be shut down by public consensus practically overnight – everyone (well, most people) would say it’s wrong to hack the phone of a dead 13-year-old girl – but a proportion of the same public, clearly in possession of at least an ounce of moral fibre, don’t seem to think it’s wrong to dismantle the NHS, kick thousands of people out of their homes or leave society’s most vulnerable bearing the brunt of this government’s social and economic rape-and-pillage programme.
But I digress.
What’s really been apparent this week is the hypocrisy and ignorance that runs rampant through a vast portion of this country’s populace, personified perfectly by the gaggle of rebranded neo-Nazis operating under the moniker of the English Defence League, and the hundreds of casual racists who “see their point”.
On the afternoon of the 22nd July, a car bomb exploded in an executive district in Oslo, Norway. It took all of 5 minutes for press teams the world over, at the behest of their ‘experts’, to begin reporting the attacks as the work of Islamic terrorists. Charlie Brooker isn’t the only one who sat there dumbfounded as reputable news sites, the Guardian included, earnestly reported to their readers the ‘evidence’ which supported this apparent fact.
The EDL had a field day. If you follow any of the accounts on Twitter that sardonically keep track of their musings, you’ll most likely have seen some of the screenshots. If you haven’t, just imagine a group of idiots being vehemently racist, whilst maintaining that they’re not racist, they’re just proud of their country. One comment (grammatically improved for clarity) even read, “I don’t have a problem with any race, just that one”.
It’s hard to imagine what Tommy Robinson and his troupe of incomprehensibly ignorant Islamophobes must have been thinking as the ‘actual’ truth slowly began to emerge – that the terrorist was white, had links to the EDL, and wasn’t a Muslim. You’d hope that for at least a few members of the EDL, the ones who perhaps haven’t submitted fully to the dogma, this might have been something of a wake-up call. Conversely, and somewhat worryingly, it’s not that difficult to envisage a line of defence similar to the casually tossed about “I’m not racist, but” adage. Think about it – “I’m not a cold-blooded serial killer, but…”
So when, 5 days later, someone you previously thought to be in possession of a working brain is seen to have joined both the “Ban the Burqa in Britain!” and “RIP to everyone who’s died in the Norway attacks” pages on Facebook… well, you do the maths.
Then, on the 23rd, Amy Winehouse died, and Facebook was temporarily transformed into a playground for moral one-upmanship. People who had made no mention of the Norway attacks were berated for changing their status to “RIP Amy”. Those who had mentioned Norway were challenged over their possible omission of sentiments of regret for those struggling with famine in Africa, and, at one point, someone towing this line was given the third degree for failing to recognise the devastating consequences of HIV/ AIDS, and the thousands that die everyday because of it.
Things like famine and right-wing extremism should be understood to be broad, massive problems that can, and will, affect each and everyone of us. The death of a young woman who touched millions with her music is tragic also – so is the death of any human being. Having said that, when a right-wing terrorist singlehandedly creates a day of absolute carnage which leaves almost 80 people dead, does it in the name of ‘saving Europe’, and has ties to a far-right party who probably have recruits living on your street, there is slightly more cause for concern.
Similarly, when millions of people are left starving and at the mercy of gangs who steal and sell on what little aid they do receive, while David Cameron goes on a business trip to try and drum up money for the economy he’s breaking back home by squeezing money out of a country already crippled by debt, there is slightly more cause for concern.
Everyone has a right to grieve for whomever they want to grieve for, and no one should be going round administering talking-tos for failing to mention a particular dead person. Neither should every person feel obliged to post a message of support each time sometime pops their clogs – things would be fucking depressing if that was the case, and it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference anyway. But at the same time, a bit of human compassion, empathy and respect really aren’t that much to ask for. Unless, of course, you’re a member of the EDL. Or Glenn Beck.