MARK FLEMING
  • Home
  • About me
  • BrainBomb
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • Articles
  • Music Therapy
  • My bands
    • 4 Minute Warning
    • Desperation A.M.
    • Little Big Dig
    • Axidents
    • Noniconic
  • Contact

The Sun's one-finger salute to Lord Leveson

24/8/2012

0 Comments

 
The Sun has become the first British newspaper to publish photos of Prince Harry's naked frolicks during a Las Vegas break. Managing Editor David Dinsmore, appearing on BBC Radio Five Live, stated the tabloid's
decision was a 'crucial' test of press freedom. When asked if his paper had prepared a longer print run for the feature he claimed not to know.

Photographs of a pissed-up 27 year-old cavorting in a private hotel room are about as newsworthy as an oil leak in a multi-storey car park. But people do  seem to become mysteriously excitable when confronted with evidence that the Royal Family occasionally behave like their 'subjects' might do. As former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie observed: "If Prince Harry with no clothes on in a Las Vegas hotel room surrounded by one naked woman and a load of other people he has just met in a drinking stripping game is not a story, then it is hard to know what is". (Although, MacKenzie's idea of newsworthy stories stretched to fabricating monstrous lies about the 96 Liverpool FC fans who died as a result of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster).

Anyone with an internet connection can have gorged themselves on these images long before they appeared on the newsstands. But for The Sun to cloak the story behind the banner of press freedom is clearly bollocks.  Tabloids know what their readership will buy. As for Dinsmore's riposte to Leveson or anyone else who would dare question a tabloid's right to place the hard selling of newspapers above all other considerations: “The teeth of the British press have been pulled by the establishment dentist. It’s important that every so often you bite the dentist’s hand”.

It's worth remembering why the British press had to be dragged kicking and screaming to that dentist's chair in the first place. Amongst the depressing catalogue of abuses, one particular nadir was the hacking of murder victim Millie Dowler’s voicemail. Those responsible for activities as reprehensible as that deserved the Marathon Man treatment with rusty pliers every day for the rest of their miserable lives.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    MARK FLEMING
    ​EDINBURGH | SCOTLAND


    ​Categories

    All
    9/11
    Alan Brazil
    Amanda Prowse
    Amy Winehouse
    Andrew Mitchell
    Apples: Short Story
    Ari Up
    Armistice
    Arts Festival
    Ashdown
    Balconing
    Bankers
    Barack Obama
    Berlin Wall
    Bill Clinton
    Blackshirts
    Bobby Smith
    Book Censorship
    BrainBomb: Word Cloud
    Britains Got Talent
    Caroline Flack
    Chav: Sneering At The Underclass
    Child Cage Fight
    Citizens Advice
    Crash
    David Walliams
    Denise Johnson RIP
    Depression Awareness
    Desperation A.M.
    Dick Smith
    Disability
    DOK Exhibitions
    Domestic Violence
    Edinburgh Festival
    Faisal Shahzad
    Falklands War
    Finances
    Fortitude
    Frankie Abbbott
    Gary Speed
    Gerry Anderson
    Gettysburg
    Goodwin
    Gore Vidal
    Graham Crowden
    Ground Zero
    Guatemalan Stds
    Hacking Scandal
    Helga Etsby
    Hillary Clinton
    Hillsborough Justice
    Hiroshima 75th
    Homelessness
    Horrorshow
    Ian Curtis: 40 Years On
    Ibiza
    Ibrox Disaster
    Iraq
    It's A Kind Of A Funny Story
    Ivor Tiefenbrun
    Jake Bugg
    Jeremy Clarkson
    Jeremy Clarkson On PQ17
    Joe Strummer
    John Cormack
    John Hume RIP
    John Peel
    John Terry
    Keira Knightley
    Kelvin MacKenzie: Wants Police Apology
    Kristallnacht
    Leither Magazine
    Lemmy
    Llyr George
    Lying About Mental Health
    Malvinas V Falklands
    Marie Antoinettes
    Mental Health And Fat-shaming
    Mental Health Awareness Week 2018
    Mental Health During COVID-19
    Mental Health Prejudice
    Michael Portillo: Death Of A School Friend
    Middle East Peace Process
    Mosley
    National Rifle Association
    Neo Fascism
    News International
    Newtown Killings
    Nicolas Winding Refn
    Noel Edmunds
    One Love
    Organ Donation
    Ozark: Bipolar Disorder
    Paddy
    Penumbra
    Pete Shelley
    Picture House
    Poly Styrene
    Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
    Predator Drones
    Primal Scream
    Private Ellison
    Protestant Action 1930s
    Public Service Broadcasting: Lit Up
    Punishment Of Luxury
    Racism In Football
    Revenant
    Richard Ashcroft
    Rick Perry
    Robbie Hance
    Rupert Murdoch
    Samaritans
    Sarrazin
    Saughton Prison Visit
    Scars
    Scottish Tories
    Selfharm
    Sepp Blatter
    Sex And Violence
    Sex Pistols
    Shane Meadows
    Shaw Trust
    Silver Jubilee
    Simon Cowell
    Simon Weston
    Slaughter And The Dogs
    Smit
    Soldiers Suffering Breakdowns
    Stigma
    Stranglers Live Review
    Suicide
    Susan Boyle
    Syria - Crossing The Red Line
    Terry Jones
    The Clash
    The Damned
    The Slits
    The Sun - One-finger Salute To Lord Leveson
    The Wolf Warriors And Werewolves
    This Is England
    This Is England 86 Review
    Time To Change
    Tombstoning
    Tony Scott
    Tories
    Troy Davis
    Urban Noir Photo Exhibition
    U.S. Slavery Ends 1865
    Vic And Bob's Shooting Stars
    Wags
    Wayne Bridge
    Web Trolls
    World Alzheimer's Day
    World Suicide Prevention Day 2020
    X Factor
    X Ray Spex

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About me
  • BrainBomb
  • Blog
  • Interviews
  • Articles
  • Music Therapy
  • My bands
    • 4 Minute Warning
    • Desperation A.M.
    • Little Big Dig
    • Axidents
    • Noniconic
  • Contact