Always Hope

Yesterday I wondered aloud if anyone else was feeling bemused by the media frenzy over The News Of The World (of not-so-blessed memory) and its associated publications and personnel.  Apparently not.  The general consensus is that this is one of the most important events this year and deserves every micro-second of media coverage that is being devoted to it. We are told that we live in a new media culture, where the news agenda is set, not by editors sitting in a darkened room somewhere, but by the people, the millions of bloggers and tweeters and whatever who get hold of a story and force the powers that be to take notice.  This is obviously true, and has in many ways increased the transparency and accountability of public life, in this country at least.  The downside of this, though, is that news media tends to be more knee-jerk reactionary than ever, less given to analysis, and dare I say it, more and more likely to initiate huge bandwagons that ever...

Apparently David Cameron has said that there should be no sympathy for Raoul Moat . His anger has been triggered by the way in which Moat has been idolised on facebook pages and roadside shrines, by people who seem him as a kind of hero. But I don't think Mr Cameron need worry too much about a minority expressing themselves in this way. Overall, public opinion is not sympathetic to criminals, particularly the likes of Moat. It will be difficult to find any news headlines bemoaning his death, even though he has evaded the justice of the courts. What he might consider, though, is the reaction of Moat's uncle . Understandably upset, he has said "what he has done is terrible, but he didn't deserve death". This also is unlikely to win many people over. Even those who tend to agree might want to add that he didn't deserve death, but neither did the man he killed, and the others he attempted to or intended to kill. But there is still some truth in what he says....