It is not M’lud Leveson that will see the Dead Tree Proles out of work and unemployable; they are more likely to condemn themselves by their own fair hand in their increasingly hysterical efforts to be seen as relevant and necessary to our society.

I shouldn’t read the Daily Mail before I have my breakfast, not good for the blood pressure, but then I really shouldn’t read it at all. Day old hyperbole and speculation, interspersed amongst the advertising, posing as relevant news. Today I couldn’t resist a link sent by an enraged Raccoonist overnight. Stephen Glover on the ‘rampant corruption‘ that France’s ‘poodle press’ fails to report on.

Unlike the sturdy, reliable, fearless, investigative reporting of solid news as practised by the British press. In his dreams.

He has the barefaced cheek, the brass neck, the choke inducing bravado, to cite as evidence:

The British public was rightly inflamed by sometimes relatively insignificant surreptitious claims by MPs that came to light because of the determined investigation by news-papers.

Dear God! Would those be the same fearless investigative reporters who had lived cheek by jowl with those MPs for generations and never breathed a word of their suspicions? Would those be the same fearless investigative reporters who were too scared to take the information from Guido in case they got sued? Would those be the same fearless investigative reporters who waited until an Inland Revenue whistle blower sold the CD of the MPs fraudulent claims to The Telegraph and then had a field day gossiping over the more lurid details? It would.

I cough and splutter every time I read that Jerome Taylor of the Independent was the fearless reporter who got the Court of Protection opened to the media.  In your dreams Jerome. I still have his pleading e-mail begging for my sources regarding the case which did open up the Court after my site notched up 25,000 hits in a single day and the Judge decided that the case had already had considerable publicity and therefore there was no harm in the media reporting the outcome.

At the risk of blowing my own trumpet (and why not?) there was not a single newspaper or TV channel that was not aware of the manner in which a defenceless Down’s syndrome girl was being paraded around the country by those who wished to fill their own Paypal coffers peddling the story of multiple rapes, corruption in high legal circles, and un-investigated murders; did any one of them spend the hour necessary on the Internet to find the original documents necessary to prove that it was all hokum and in reality that girl was in desperate need of protection from the people around her?  No they didn’t, they merely politely turned down the story when they realised it was full of holes,  in the process helping to fuel the conspiracy theories that there was a ‘D’ notice on the story; they did nothing to help her.

I dare say that Dick Puddlecote coughs and splutters every time a hack copies and pastes his perfectly researched and beautifully written denouncements of the trollop dolled out by the Tobacco Control press releases – where are the fearless investigative reporters looking into the facts in the main stream media?

Did any main stream journalist ever question Gordon Brown’s mental health before John Ward’s article?

I could go on and on, there are numerous examples of the fact that investigative reporting is done these days by Bloggers; the main stream media, docile poodles that they are, concentrate on partially rewriting sufficient press releases of nonsensical stories that name celebrities with sufficient pull to bring ‘hits’ to their on line sites, and keep the advertising coming in.

“Because we have a strong (though by no means as strong as it was) and vigilant national Press.”

No, we don’t, Stephen, we have a scared band of hack writers, hiding behind press releases, terrified that their glory days are over.

Most French newspapers are weak or deferential, and often both. In one way or another, they are heavily subsidised by — and thus beholden to — the French state.

And ALL British newspaper are BOTH weak AND deferential – and TOTALLY subsidised by – and thus beholden to – the advertising industry.

They are also shackled by privacy laws, which make the investigation of wrong-doing among the powerful more problematic.

I’ll grant you that French privacy laws make reporting mere speculation more problematic, but speculation isn’t the business you claim to be in, Stephen, is it? It also makes gossiping about a film-star’s 15 year old daughter’s cellulite almost impossible – but what has your ability to do that got to do with your belief that you are vigilantly holding the executive to account? Sweet nothing.

As a result of all these factors, corruption in French politics is rife.

We have rampant corruption in British politics, despite your freedom to report that Kim Kardashian caught her 6″ heel in a grating last night…!

Compare the way in which the British Press covered the revelations of MPs’ expenses fiddles. In France, such an examination wouldn’t have been possible because deputies are given £5,000 a month to do with as they please in addition to a salary of £70,000 plus £90,000 a year for office expenses.

Would that be the same way in which British ex-Prime Ministers are given £115000 a year to do with as they please in addition to their pension – and British newspapers are no more capable of cracking the secrecy around those expenses than the French are?

My purpose is not so much to denigrate French newspapers, though they have often acted in a shamefully subservient way, as to suggest that the British Press, for all its faults, is far more robust and independent-minded and, in its way, constitutes a precious national asset.

No, my little endangered species, I’m sure that isn’t your ‘purpose’; your purpose is to ensure that you do not have to join the ranks of unpaid writers who inhabit the Blogosphere. Your purpose is to ensure that you can go on purporting to offer a ‘news’ service, that relies on celebrity tittle tattle, copy and past jobs on Bloggers and local newspapers, and press releases from government departments and their satellite ‘fake charities’.

‘Grow a pair’ as the saying goes. Get out there and do some real reporting, instead of wailing that Leveson might cut short your stream of Kardashian nonsense. You have facilities and talent that the Blogosphere can only dream of, why don’t you use it?

Grr, I’m off for breakfast before I burst a blood vessel.

h/t to Max Farquar, from whom I shamelessly nicked the superb graphic.

cascadian July 26, 2012 at 22:01

If politics is show-business for ugly people, then the Leveson inquiry is
reality TV for politicians, third-rate musicians and actors, each vying for
title of idiot-of-the-decade.

Anybody who would parade themselves in public and admit they do not have
the sense to key-in a four digit “security” code on their phone voice-mail is
beyond sarcasm. They are exhibitionists whining about voyeurs watching their
tawdry lives.

As for the MSM practitioners they have revealed themselves as the laziest,
most stupid muppets alive, their presence is no longer needed we can all read
prepared handouts from governments, MP’s and rent-seekers without their
intervention. I gave up buying newspapers three years ago, generally avoid
radio and TV “news” whatever they reported was invariably wrong or worse-
their opinion.

Backwoodsman
July 27, 2012 at 06:15

Leveson was a) final confirmation if anyone still required it, that
Cameron is a fool and b) the bbc and graun and their usual cohort of ‘useful
idiots’, trying to take out a more successful commercial rival.
Whilst
agreeing with Anna’s sentiments , surely the appaling, hopelessly,
institutionally leftist bbc, has a far worse effect on life in Britain. The
blame for the descent of large parts of the capital city into third world
ghettos , can be largely blamed on their ceaselessly promoting their
multi-culti propaganda.

Mudplugger July 26, 2012 at 21:49

One simple way that UK governments have maintained and increased their hold
on the dead-tree press is the dangled threat of VAT being applied to their
product. By keeping newspapers exempt from the 1970s, this has allowed every
succeeding government to wheel out the threat of its imposition any time the
media gets too close to any uncomfortable truth.

And particularly now, with the blogosphere monstering their pitch and VAT
up to 20%, that threat carries far more power than ever it did. I don’t
actually believe government would ever apply VAT because the value of the
‘control’ is far greater than any tax-revenue it would raise in the short time
before the dead-tree press finally dies. But the threat alone has them all by
the editorial balls, and that’s enough.

Ed Butt July 26,
2012 at 20:04

The dead tree traditionalists industry has always been about advertising
revenue so there are many factors that influence what they write.
Unfortunately new media is increasingly about advertsing revenue and
Corporations like Google (Don’t be evil, that’s our job) are quite happy to
talk about content being king while filtering to the top of search results
listings those sites that are likely to generate most revenue for the search
engine operator.

Some independent bloggers are stubbornly holding out against the takeover
of the web by advertising but more and more I notice news sites that depend on
ad revenue are running so many data mining scripts on my browser the computer,
which is more powerful that the 1980s cray Supercomputers and IBM mainframes I
used to work on, is slowing to a crawl because so much memory and processing
power is needed to put in front of me content that I have never and will never
want to see. As the web becomes more driven by advertising revenue the
advertisers will exercise more control over what is published and what is
displayed.

I can see Samizdat blogging becoming the next big trend, we’ll have to go
underground.

Ian T.

cascadian July 26, 2012 at 21:47

Ian, if you are running Mozilla Firefox try Ad-Blocker (google it),
guaranteed you will regain your speed.

microdave July 26, 2012 at 19:31

I had an attack of the vapors today when reading a sad story of someone
killed after contacting a high voltage cable which had fallen. The cable was
said to have fallen from a “TELEGRAPH POLE”. Now quite apart from this
means of communication having disappeared eons ago, 11,000 volt cables are
NEVER supported on telephone poles. Occasionally some telephone
cables will have shared usage on the power company poles, but that’s all…

Is it too much to expect that your typical reporter will have a modicum of
common sense, and even a little practical knowledge of the world around
them?

JimS July 26, 2012 at 21:29

They might not carry the telegraph anymore but they are still the same
item and as BT says:

“BT Network (unsafe works, damage to cables, telegraph poles,
cabinets or manhole covers etc)
Call 0800 0232023 or tell us about unsafe
or damaged cables or poles.”

Technically the ones that radiate cables outside the house are
Distribution Poles

JimS July 26, 2012 at 17:55

I don’t like using the word but the BBC News has long been Speculation,
Hype and Irritating Trivia.

I particularly dislike the political ‘news’ where we are told that
Politician ‘B’ is ‘set’, (do normal people use that word?), to attack the
speech by Politician A, neither politician having even made their speeches
yet. Then there are the made up stories from Andrew Marr’s Sunday programmes;
“Tell me, Prime Minister, in closing, what do you like to have for
breakfast?”. “Well, Andrew, you’ll never believe this ,but this morning I was
in such a rush that I accidentally spread shoe polish on my toast!”. “Well
over to Naga for the news”. “Prime Minister David Cameron, today announced
that he has shoe polish for breakfast…”

Mudplugger
July 26, 2012 at 21:41

Wonderful example every day this week – each BBC ‘news’ broadcast has
been 50% Olympic coverage – that’s just speculation about an event which
hasn’t even started yet.

I expect ‘news’ to be reporting things which have already happened, not
premature orgasmic outpourings on ‘the great circus comes to town’. We just
need the BBC to give us bread and we’ve got the Roman Empire’s
full-house.

GildasTheMonk
July 26, 2012 at 13:55

I too read this article, and find Madame’s observations most
interesting

Dave July 26, 2012 at 12:04

Thanks for that Anna. I read the article and went yeah yeah whatever, just
like the others who buy the paper each day.
We all read our paper of
choice, listen to our radio of choice and even go to the church of our choice-
mainly I believe in order to have our prejudices validated.
Where would we
be without the blogosphere to shine a little light?

binao July 26, 2012 at 19:56

True Dave, we may have our prejudices validated, but I reckon most of us
have enough discrimination to adjust what we read and hear against our own
world and experiences. And to be aware of huge candy floss confections
produced from a teaspoonful speculation. Not too sure about Sun/Sport
readers though. Strangely, I read the Telegraph because I enjoy the
crossword and cannot stand tabloid format, which was why I stopped buying
the The Times, apart from it’s maelstrom descent as a paper. I won’t buy the
weekend skip fillers, ever, and I’m seriously wondering if a crossword habit
and a coffeetime read is really worth £1,20.
Having just got rid of Sky*,
I now need some more offsetting for the Bleeding hearts Broadcasting
Corporation, but I will find it.
*anybody else experienced their limpet
like total resistance to cancellation?

Elena
‘andcart July 27, 2012 at 07:55

I have a friend who saves the Telegraph Crosswords for me, and brings
them over in bulk twice a year. This is great because it doesn’t cost me
anything. And No, I don’t cheat because there isn’t any point.
Sadly,
The Mail Website is much more riveting than The Telegraph Website, but I
go to The Telegraph if I want anything bordering on the truth. I read The
Sun Website if I am really desperate for something on line to read, like
Katie Price and Kerry Katona. This helps to remind me that I have many
blessings.

Jeremy
Poynton July 26, 2012 at 11:56

The MSM are as much a part of the problem as the politicians (and
bankers).

Sara July 26, 2012 at 11:04

Unfortunately, this does not only apply to the dead tree press but also to
the broadcast media who continue to peddle their own opinions and prejudices
as ‘news’ and ‘fact’. I have given up on all of them.