Sunday 4 September 2011

Baying for Blood

The BBC webpage marks the 90th anniversary of the death of Virginia Rappe. The tragic death of a young and attractive actress in sleazy surroundings naturally made the news big-style in the US, and the hounds of the press bayed for the blood of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.

The press of course got it wrong back then. Despite having no evidence against him, Arbuckle's life was ruined.

In 2010 Joanne Yeates died. The press bayed for blood again, and the man in the frame was Christopher Jefferies. Like Arbuckle, Jefferies seems to have suffered from that most awful of human social sins - being a bit unusual. Like Arbuckle, he happened to be in the proximity of a tragic death. Unlike Fatty Arbuckle, Christopher Jefferies has have received at least some restitution - but how much would it take to repay a man for the allegations he suffered?

As instant news and instant celebrity, Twitter, smaller newsrooms in leaner times and unchecked stories roam our virtual worlds we have all the ingredients for media lynch-mobbing to become worse rather than better. Jefferies could sue a handful of newspapers - but you can't sue a million teenagers passing on dodgy, unreliable, salacious gossip. It's a scary world we're moving into.

2 comments :

  1. Jefferies odd? I've seen odder in parliament!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not just teenagers either - I remember someone asking me in work whether I thought he'd done it - as if I had some inside information :(

    ReplyDelete

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