I thought that this post's general thrust was that the media had driven her to suicide. That makes this post as much guilty of gossip and assumption. My point was that you can't regulate gossip, whether in print, in person, or online.
Caroline Flack has died
- Thread starter Philim
- Start date
I thought that this post's general thrust was that the media had driven her to suicide. That makes this post as much guilty of gossip and assumption. My point was that you can't regulate gossip, whether in print, in person, or online.
SteveS1
I heard that, pardon?
This is very sad. I don't watch the programmes and didn't recognise her but 40 is no age and the press and social media intrusion is not a new thing, nothing will be done about that. Their politics, coarseness and vulgarity is too useful to the government.
I'm less convinced that the intrusion and nastiness to individuals is tabloid led. I think the cess pit that is social media such as Twitter et al has proved that if anything, they were reflecting and even nastier public. I feel sorry for the youngsters whose sense of self worth seems so wedded to this trivia.
I'm less convinced that the intrusion and nastiness to individuals is tabloid led. I think the cess pit that is social media such as Twitter et al has proved that if anything, they were reflecting and even nastier public. I feel sorry for the youngsters whose sense of self worth seems so wedded to this trivia.
There are always certainties though and while the press/media may not solely be responsible I am sure many will agree their hounding of Flack (and others) combined with any sort of mental health issues will be a massive contributor to outcomes such as this. When I was part of Hacked Off some of the things that the press were found to have got up to (some of which are documented in the Leveson report) were genuinely jaw dropping and even in your line of work their propensity to blame the police and security services in light of any terrorist attack while completely ignoring the literally hundreds of other successful anti-terrorist operations that they achieve is massively irksome not to mention borderline libellous. They don't care who or what they damage as long as they sell their rags and get their views online.... in the rare cases they are taken to court they get no more than a slap on the wrist. This is not conjecture or assumption, this is hard documented fact. Read Leveson if you have time and I think you will agree.
manicatel
pfm Member
People write inane twaddle on a forum or instagram, FB etc. A ( probably small) percentage of people who read the twaddle respond in a very negative way, trolling or being offensive.
On a forum such as this, the number of people who do this is small & a moderator comes along, deletes the post &/or bans the offensive poster.
But on Instagram et al, the responses, followers what have you, will be in the tens of thousands, so the number of offensive replies is magnified enormously. If you read the abusive replies & take them to heart, I can see how someone could become very depressed with this. Live by the sword...........well you know the end of that saying.
Add the gutter press into the equation, with again, tens of thousands of people clicking on juicy gossip bait, & you have another component of a perfect storm.
You can’t put the Genie back in the bottle. Followers, influencers & abusive trolls will always be a part of the instant gratification of social media.
Whilst I think it’s inane, mind-numbing, vacuous vane twaddle, million’s of people live their lives by it & sometimes they make irreversible tragic decisions because of it.
Dad rant over.
On a forum such as this, the number of people who do this is small & a moderator comes along, deletes the post &/or bans the offensive poster.
But on Instagram et al, the responses, followers what have you, will be in the tens of thousands, so the number of offensive replies is magnified enormously. If you read the abusive replies & take them to heart, I can see how someone could become very depressed with this. Live by the sword...........well you know the end of that saying.
Add the gutter press into the equation, with again, tens of thousands of people clicking on juicy gossip bait, & you have another component of a perfect storm.
You can’t put the Genie back in the bottle. Followers, influencers & abusive trolls will always be a part of the instant gratification of social media.
Whilst I think it’s inane, mind-numbing, vacuous vane twaddle, million’s of people live their lives by it & sometimes they make irreversible tragic decisions because of it.
Dad rant over.
Yes, I understand what you were saying. My answer is that the press are not simply engaging in gossip, they are claiming their printed words as truth. We here on teh other hand are just a group of people talking. As such it reflects a variety of opinions, what the general thrust is is neither here nor there. This makes it very different, the man on the Clapham Omnibus can gossip all he likes, nobody pays him much attention. We've all had a taxi driver holding forth about life, "see the way I see it is this" and that's so-what. However the press are able to pass off their stuff as truth.
This is the difference between me saying "I don't like blacks", which may be reprehensible but doesn't break any laws, as it's simply my opinion, however misguided it may be, and me saying "Blacks are scum, we need to string them up, who's coming?" which is incitement and quite rightly illegal.
webster
Listen & enjoy.
Dad rant or not you're absolutely spot on.
Yes, Ok, I'm with you.
By way of discussion , for discussion sake only (!) Steve: To say that the press assert their words as truth... only if we're gullible enough to think that. For sure, many people take words on a page, on a screen, in a TV documentary as 'fact' , but the various media don't actually say: 'This is fact'. I guess that's why I read/digest a very limited amount of media.
G
Guest432
Guest
Don't forget the old "if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes a fact"
One of the things that came out Levinson was that when the gutter press used a phrase like "a friend of xxxxx said" or "an associate of xxxxx said" when quoting a juicy bit of gossip it really meant "we have listened to their voicemails and"
When a newspaper gets away with hacking a dead girls voicemails leading to the parents false hopes that she may be alive that newspaper should have it's licence to operate revoked immediately.
How/why Piers Morgan has not been black balled or blocked from any job in the media is a disgrace.
They don't say so because they don't need to! It's a NEWS paper. If it were a fiction comic it would be called that. Or it should be at least. However because of the fact that they do (occasionally) report facts then they become a trusted source. This is why the teacher’s April Fool is so effective. The kids get so used to taking everything the teacher says as gospel that when they come up with an April 1 prank nearly every kid falls for it. Same goes for the gutter press. City beat Town 2-1 on Saturday (yes, a fact), Storm Dennis flooded York, Malvern, or wherever else (likewise, a fact) and Jeremy Corbyn is a Trotskyite fool intent on selling the Queen to the Russians. Must be true. We should be more critical. Sure, but I don’t look at the football scores on the back pages and say “hang on a minute, I’m going to check that, just in case it wasn’t Smith in the 19th minute but Jones in the 23rd.” Why would you?
madmike
I feel much better now, I really do...
I'm not aware of the format...is it like Big brother but with added sex?
Bob McC
Living the life of Riley
So one clever racist who went to Cambridge is your reasoning that the UK educational system for the majority is hunky dory ?
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Coming from zero knowledge about her, I did read/scan some details in my paper yesterday. Whereas much of what has been said may well be true, it seems that she wasn't the most stable person out there, despite (or because of) her status.. However, one thing I read disgusted me. Despite the (ex?) boyfriend withdrawing all charges, the C.P.S. decided to press on anyway. This, it appears, might have been the final straw.
From personal experience, the C.P.S. is a bureaucratic body whose sole terms of reference are to ascertain whether a case has sufficient merit to bring a prosecution. In this case, i.m.o., there was no case as it had been quashed by the complainant. Did they look at the intricate details and health/history of C.F.? Did they buggery! Sledgehammers and nut come to mind; this is not sensible justice.
From personal experience, the C.P.S. is a bureaucratic body whose sole terms of reference are to ascertain whether a case has sufficient merit to bring a prosecution. In this case, i.m.o., there was no case as it had been quashed by the complainant. Did they look at the intricate details and health/history of C.F.? Did they buggery! Sledgehammers and nut come to mind; this is not sensible justice.
G
Guest432
Guest
With domestic violence the CPS can still prosecute if the victim withdraws the complaint (or even if they don't complain in the first place)
The reasoning is sound in that victims can be scared or bullied/pressured into withdrawing complaints. The application of the policy may not always work though and I suspect in this case the CPS were worried about the public perception of them dropping charges in such a prominent case.
Andrew C!
Been around a while....
Mmm - worth a separate thread, is this. The prosecuting of DV cases is more complex than this, as has been proved by the numerous serious case review recommendations following on from purported standard and medium risk -assessed DV incidents.
Mike Reed
pfm Member
Quite, and I read this explanation too.; as I said, "sledgehammer to crack a nut". There's no personal touch with the C.P.S.. Once upon a time, the police (and local if relevant) used to handle everything. 'Divorced' bureaucracy is mindless and heartless.
G
Guest432
Guest
That's neither the fault of the police or CPS, none of them have the staff to handle the cases they have at the quietest of times. If you want to blame someone it is the tories who have decimated the police force, CPS and legal aid services.
Yes, more than likely years ago this would have gone down as a 'domestic'
Yes, more than likely years ago this would have gone down as a 'domestic'