I awoke this morning to hear tales of the condemnation heaped upon the French Magazine 'Closer' for publishing pictures of a bare breasted Kate. Kate of course, if you are unaware of such things, happens to be married to an RAF Officer who is second in line to the throne. The response to this 'outrage' is found in the 'Daily Mail,' the 'Daily Express,' the 'Sun,' and the 'Mirror,' all of whom offers several items, plus numbers of photographs, going into as many details as they dare of this, er, exposure. The Online 'Mail' itself showed restraint the other day by offering a dozen large pictures of Kate, with her man in the background, as they paid their respects to the dead in a Commonwealth War Cemetery. I consider it an outrage that men who died, often from disease, torture and beatings, should be used as a backdrop so that the press can use this woman to make money! These papers condemn the French paparazzi, scream that she ought not to be 'used' like Diana was used, and all the time use her in the same fashion they did Diana. The 'quality press, Times, telegraph, Guardian, Herald, Scotsman, are just as bad. While offering a more thoughtful approach they too know that her picture will help sell their papers. The word 'quality' I must add is used in a very wide sense here.
I am no Diana fan, and I am sick to the teeth of pictures of Kate taking up space in the press. Why were these women there? Because far too many other women live their lives through these women. Diana was as false as a six pound note. The 'fairytale Princess' who used the media to get people on her side, and the media went along as long as desperate women lived their divorce, children or looks through her. She sold papers and magazines every time she appeared on the cover, Kate does the same. Now having an interest in something or someone is good, using them to live your life is bad. Whether it is a princess or a football player (David Beckham, a waste of space is ever there was one, sells papers and magazines although he has nothing to offer!) those who wish to read the minutiae of their life need to step back a moment. It is indeed interesting to know the story of your latest superstar, but there are limits. For one you will never be they who you follow (those eight goals I let in at Dunfermline ruined my goalkeeping career) and they have a right to a private life. More importantly not only will much that they offer be half truths and lies, an image as opposed to themselves, you find that most 'celebs' are broken people, desperate for attention, and require much healing, a little bit like the rest of us who lack their attraction.
The media rush to grumble about the French when really they know the public today would not let them print these pictures in the UK. Although they may be available online (I couldn't find t...er....) the public do not wish her exposed this way. The public (women and sad men) will still rush to read about her, mostly waiting to gush when she announces her first pregnancy. Oh joy...
The hypocrisy of the papers that use this woman, the anger amongst them because they cannot publish the pics they have now stuck up on the office wall, the petulant outrage concerning this tale, on several picture filled pages, makes me hope Leveson and his enquiry actually makes a real decision and does not offer the whitewash I expect.
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12 comments:
Spot on. I do love the way the English and French can be totally outraged with one another though. I wondered what the response would be if the English press published a photo of Valérie Trierweiler sunbathing topless. And I have no doubt they would.
On another note, you ask hard questions don't you. I've no idea if it was north or south Korea. Maybe Korea before it divided.
Well said. The even greater hypocrisy is that by talking about the french magazine publishing the topless pics, they immediately created an interest and demand for those pics that would not otherwise exist.
Pretty much anywhere there's a bathing beach in europe, women sunbathe topless with little or no comment, so, exposing your boobs to the sun is no longer considered a heinous perversion. Kate is a young woman, so none of us are surprised that she actually has a pair.
Why the outrage?
And, in a moment of lese majeste, brought on by the BBC's feigned outrage, I googled 'Kate topless'. And lo and behold, I am now as informed as a french person might be.
Well, I only went there for a few seconds, because, to be honest, I'm not that bothered. But it's the same silliness as was in the press over prince Harry parading his ginger-nuts in Las Vegas.
In the bigger scheme of things, who cares? It's meaningless. Does it alter what I think about her? No. Do I think she's done some terribly unroyal thing? No. It's time the royal-watching pundits accepted that the current generation are creatures of their time. Their social mores are not the same as their grandparents'.
The press?hypocrites, all of them.
If they believed their own claptrap, they'd have said "No, it's not an item we're going to run.", and that would be the end of it.
As for the other big story of the week, here in Britain, Hillsborough. In the rush to pin the blame, I notice that the whole thing is the police's fault, well, police, ambulance, and Hillsborough management, and no blame at all goes to football fans.
Now correct me if I'm wrong. A lot of people died at Hillsborough, because they were crushed and trampled by a mass of people trying to push their way into the ground.
That situation might have been avoided if police had not opened gates to allow a larger number of people in than the turnstiles could. However, all the deaths and injuries were due to people being pushed from behind. To my mind, that makes every person who pushed against any person in front of them, guilty of involuntary manslaughter. These people were killed by their fellow fans, not by police or ambulancemen. If every one of them had shown a modicum of good sense and manners there would be no disaster.
Yes, the police made errors and tried to cover them up, the ambulance response was late and badly co-ordinated, but at the root of it, it was pushing that killed. Pushing.
And I don't imagine the police were at the back, pushing.
Mo, The English & French are always at each others throats. Imperialists are like that.....
I was being fasce...fasito....cheeky re Korea. I have however developed an interest in North Korea lately.
Soub, indeed. The hypocrisy is evident. U however wish for a privacy law, each should have a space no-one should intrude. Obvious criminal activity lessens that right, but for most of us, rich or poor, private life should be just that.
Soub, Having stood in many huge crowds I am well aware of the crowds capacity to move without consideration of others. That clearly played a part!
I may have said so before. However a whitewash of the facts could have included that, not covered up police failings. But the crowd does play a part.
Leveson will be a whitewash, inevitably, and it would be helpful if the press could inform us about things that are important to us rather than having a hissy fit over a tit or two.
The royal family is well versed in using the press. Harry is now undergoing the whitewash and rehabilitation treatment on service in Afghanistan. We hear all about one soldier who "was never in any danger" and nothing about the two who were killed.
Fly, I suspect Leveson will be a whitewash, even if not what PM will activate anything?
A, If you look several places down the dead are sometimes mentioned, for a while......
What blows my mind is how someone like Prince Harry or Princess Kate can think that they can get away with acting like they are just another face in the crowd! Furthermore, one of our esteemed network reporters acted absolutely shocked that someone could take those pictures of the princess on a 640 acre (which is a section of land equivalent to square mile, by the way) private estate. Hey, if we really do have keyhole satellite cameras that can read the denomination of a stamp from outer space, can we assume that there are not pictures of just what you were really doing in the neighbor's rose garden around midnight last Tuesday?
Jerry, The paparatzzi are everywhere! At least in the US you can shoot them!
The only hypocrisy here is people who know they are role models for a nation (and being well-paid to do nothing but that) getting naked outside of their castle and then getting indignant over the fact that a newspaper exists to make money.
Chasing them down at 100 mph in a French tunnel is not the same. That's abuse, not opportunity.
Max, People should still have privacy.
max, Indeed.
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