Politicians, the Press, & the Human Condition
MICHAEL J BLAIR
Perthshire, Scotland
From the very top to the lowest rung of the political ladder in any country, we see rampant corruption, rarely if ever punished by the law. There is always a ‘get out’ clause for these shameless huxters.
Huge rewards and cushy new jobs await your local crook, oops, politician, who might have to resign. And the few who actually go to jail come out to semi-celebrity status! For the likes of you or me, there would be shame and embarrassment, but for these people, this doesn’t seem to apply.
Out they come and walk straight into television and radio stations, to tell of the dreadful conditions in prison and what they are going to do to make things better for those still inside. What they mean is, I’ll make as much money out of this as I can and write a book on my experience to make even more.
Next is to jump back on the gravy train of directorships as if the prison sentence had never happened. If you or I had something like this happen to us, we probably wouldn’t get a job, never mind one paying even more than the original. But it’s who you knew before you went into prison that counts. And also what you know about who you knew.
The “old boy” network is still around, looking after their own. No crime is too heinous, with the possible exception of child pornographry, to stop these crooks being accepted back into polite society.
Also, once the scandal has disappeared from the front pages of newspapers and lead stories on television news bulletins, they quietly and quickly get taken back into the fold.
For the average person whose name is plastered across the front page of the Daily Scum, it’s a different story. The effects of even an untrue but lurid story, lives on long after the event. Its ripples spread far and wide, involving whole communities. Even with the passing of time, the shame lies just beneath the surface.
Being accused of something that didn’t happen doesn’t stop the gutter press from printing a story. The more salacious, the bigger the headline. People who should know better, shun the person on the street and in places far from where the alleged event took place.
It’s the “where there’s smoke, there must be fire” attitude. And of course, if it’s written in a newspaper, it must be
true!
No matter how we deal with such trauma, it is always there. It’s alright for the slimy reporters who work undercover to collect “evidence of wrongdoing” in the public interest.
They can slither back under the rocks where they came from, safe in the knowledge that they’re working on the side of the righteous, or more like the self-righteous!
They have no idea of the distress and damage they cause with their lurid stories and false claims. Months and even years later, the damage is still taking its toll. People who were completely innocent, still suffer psychological trauma.
Families are torn apart when things which should have been kept secret are front page news! Relationships are ruined amid acrimonious outbursts. This is an emotional earthquake.
No one moves on from such an experience undamaged.
Trust is rapidly eroded. Who was the ratbag who sold the “story” to the press in the first place? Fingers are pointed and accusations are made. Sleep well, tabloid barrel scraper, for you have no idea of what you have done.
Months on, nothing can ever be the same. As much as people try to avoid any mention of the event, something will be said, which brings it all flooding back and swamping the small shoots of emotional and romantic recovery.
Try drawing a line under what happened? Oh right. It isn’t possible. No imaginary line can cope with human emotions and the memory of life being turned on its head and shaken for days.
I really don’t think anyone, not even the privileged people I spoke of, can ever forget the emotional turmoil. Even the guilty can never shake off the stigma of national humiliation. Regardless of having done the time for doing the crime. And regardless of whatever well paid job they were handed on their release.
The innocent do not deserve to be constantly reminded of what happened, and sometimes they have to abandon relationships without knowing what would have happened without the intervention of the press and the anonymous vindictive person or persons who brought in the press in the first place.
We can only hope that time and space can heal the scars of very public humiliation. Bad enough if it were true, but far worse when it isn’t.
Follow The Party of Common Sense on Twitter, at @tpocs
ALSO BY MJ BLAIR
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Michael J Blair contributes political analysis to DDA, and he can be reached at: michaelblair43@googlemail.com. His Twitter handle is: @mmjblair
[Photographers and tabloids photo courtesy of Max Braun, Wikimedia Commons; British tabloids rack photo courtesy of Bobbie Johnson; Banksy’s tabloid, journalist rat photo courtesy of Mikhail Fludkov, Wikimedia Commons]
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