Edward Woolard’s impulsive throwing of a fire extinguisher from Millbank Tower and Jared Loughner’s pre-meditated massacre in Arizona may seem as far apart in motive as they are in miles. Yet both may share a connection that is steadily becoming part of our lives. Both had their ire whipped up by rabid political posturing and deliberately provocative press reporting. And while we may proclaim our disgust at their behaviour and feel some sense of cleansing in their sentencing, we are all as guilty of accepting and, indeed, encouraging this dangerous behaviour from our politicians and press.
I’ve always believed that nature and history are the best sources of advice on one’s philosophical and moral choices. True, they can be abused and misread but if they’re considered dispassionately and in depth, they can provide good guidance. The problem is that most of us get all our nature lessons from TV and our history in lists and facts and soundbites. We forget why things are the way they are. People become so comfortable with the status quo, they assume it was always that way, not realising the pains their forebears suffered to create our system. The principles of Free Press and Free Speech and Democracy are accepted without question or reason – just as many Americans accept Jared Loughner’s right to buy an automatic assault weapon as inalienable.
But it is no good we armchair critics in Britain – and that includes our lazy news media – sitting and pointing at Sarah Palin and Fox News and Rush Limbaugh as though that would never happen here. Innaccurate and inflammatory reporting is rife in the UK. Newspapers and broadcast media alike are playing games with our lives just to see what might happen. It’s as though reporting history is no longer enough. They have to change it.
For example, notice the way some big political “scandals” have been held back by editors for months to inflict the maximum pain on a political party. Surely, the news media’s responsibility is to publish as soon as possible? Well, not if there’s an election looming that a news channel can deliberately destabilise.
Here in the UK, we still do things in a more sedate way than our American friends but the behaviour is no less immoral. This is not the journalism I was taught to admire. This is not the activity of a responsible free press. This is dangerous game-playing with people’s lives and with democratic society. The British media may not be as venomous or simple-minded as Fox News but it is equally manipulative. This is an abuse of privilege that is becoming more the norm than the exception.
We smug Brits may think ourselves above our gun-toting cowboy cousins but dropped from a great height, even a fire extinguisher can be a lethal weapon. It’s about time our press woke up to the reason why it’s been given the power it wields and thinks long and hard about its responsiblities before it finds its hands covered in British blood.
