PRESS (ING) STANDARDS! (some notes on some thoughts!)

All this talk, mine included about a free press, free speech and democracy has got me thinking....could be dangerous.

Does having a free press really make us free? Who wants to read about pointless celebrity’s that court the media then criticism them in the same breath.

“Is it in the interest of the public, or is it of interest to the public” Is something I've heard spoken over the last year during the phone hacking scandal which is at the heart of the Leveson report into press standards.

Who cares if some 2 bit celebrity has a new hair cut, or their nose fell off because they snorted too much coke while shagging half the Manchester United football team. If this sort of shit is regulated by the state, would it be a bad thing for our society? I don't think it would.

The years and years of having celebrity shoved in their faces has blinded people to what's really going on, and turned them into a dumbed down mass of self obsessed individuals, praying at the alter of celebrity consumption.

The media publishes propaganda for industries like fashion and music, publicity for products aimed at promoting life style choices.

People have become slaves to a machine they help to fuel, by buying and believing the papers.

If people didn't consume it then they wouldn't print it, but they do, so the media machine feeds the hunger for not just the trivial and titillating, but also the vicious and vicarious.

Then there are the stories we've had over the last couple years like MPs expenses scandal, that have gone some way to telling the truth about how people in power abuse their power.

The people in power don't want to be exposed by the media, so any post Leveson recommendations will be used by the politicians for their own ends. i.e. protecting their own interests.

Both the Liberal and Labour parties are in favour of the 'Statutory underpinning' of any legislation based on the results of the Leveson report, or in other terms state control! On lines petitions have been set up and the 'famous faces' have come out to to support what is basically state control of the media.

What about the new social twitterface mediums, how will these be effected by Levesens findings.

The media have created this generation of mindless voyeurs whose politics are also shaped by the paper they read, with their often bigoted views; It's all the fault of the 'illegal immigrants' 'benefit scroungers' etc, etc. Will this sort of reporting become regulated? I doubt it, and neither should it, not if we still want to live in a democracy where the people have the freedom to choose what they think. But like I said; “Too much thinking could be dangerous”, but too little thinking could be even worse, but not as fatal as believing everything we are told!