Making Waves
‘WHEN the film of the London bombs is made, you can expect it to focus on the lives of the murderers and not dwell too much on their victims.
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As the credits roll at the end of Maybe Its Because…, the faces of each of the 52 dead (although that figure may rise) will compete for viewers attention with the list of cast and crew and a TV health warning saying that if anyone has been affected by the film then it has done its job perfectly.
In media terms, victims do not make for good telly. Nor to they make for good copy, as the Mirror leads with a front-page shot of the WHITE WATER TERRORISTS.
In case youre hard-of-reading and managed to miss the livid cover shot of two of the suicide bombers, Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer rafting down the choppy River Tryweryn, Wales, the Mirror makes the shot bigger and splashes it over two more pages inside.
A PEACE SIGN..FROM A SUICIDE BOMBER, says the headline as Sidique flashes the old Churchillian two-fingered salute to the cameraman.
Meanwhile, on page seven, the paper produces a single column list of the 52 innocent victims of the bombs in plain black and white. And thats it.
And do not think the Mirror is alone in this virtual news blackout of the true victims of the London terror attack.
Though the Mail leads with more news of militant Islamicists British-born Haroon Rashid Aswat has been captured at a religious school in Pakistan with a suicide bomb belt it has nothing to say of the victims.
Instead whet readers get is a chance to see a photo montage from yesterdays event when Tony Blair wanted to cross the street…in a car.
Between 11:30 and 11:50, around 50 police officers were employed in clearing the area around Whitehall as Tony made the 400-yard journey from Downing Street to the House of Commons.
We might not be afraid as we go to work on Londons public transport, but the impression is that our leader is more than a little jittery.
But what about life in the Sun? Surely that paper is still hunting down real-life stories, examples of human courage from the terror outrage.
Well, no. Like the Mirror, the Sun has a picture of the WHITE WATER RATS, two terrorists hurtling down a river; and like the Mail, it leads with tales of Muslim extremists, specifically a picture of cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed and the news that he is not to be deported.
But no mention is made of the victims. Not even a story about how a dog that belonged to one of the murdered has been rehoused with a lovely old lady in Southport.
There are just more tales of doom, hatred and extremism. Which, when all said and done, might be the best sign that things are returning to normal…’
Posted: 21st, July 2005 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
