Out of Control - The British Tabloid Press

After four days of enforced blog-free existence due to the collapse of my Internet connection, I am back and boy, am I ready to blog again......

First up.....British tabloids.  What on earth is going on?  The urge to destroy celebrities seems to have grown so strong amongst the more well known and less reputable papers, that it is starting to drive me mad!  Surely there must be a limit on how far the national press (or at least a handful of the less palatable ones) should be able to stoop to sell copies?

The amount of rubbish that they print is surely getting out of hand.....with innocent people that try their luck on shows like the X Factor finding themselves in receipt of death threats and hate mail.

Don't get me wrong, I do realise that it takes more than just a newspaper to result in hate mail - you need a massively imbalanced weirdo to write the letter and post it - but hopefully you get my point. 

Newspapers used to be about reporting news.  NEWS.  Not endless lies and invented scandal designed to ruin people's lives.

It seems to be a growing problem and one that needs to be stopped.  I am guessing the only way to do that would be to put the editors of these rags through the same kind of character assassination as they inflict on others.

Chances of that happening are zero....More's the pity.

Watch Out Jay Kay.....Here Comes the Girls!

X-Factor is always good for some weekend entertainment and between the rows over the contestants and the constant bickering between the judges, this season has so far proved to be no exception.
 

Jay Kay......hmmmm.

But this weekend, the whole thing stepped up a gear when Jay Kay turned up to perform at the Sunday results show after having blasted two of the judges - Dannii Minogue and Cheryl Cole - in a national newspaper twenty four hours beforehand!

 Jay is quoted as having said “What are they going to tell me about f***ing music? What the f***. When have you ever done anything? You’re useless. The pair of you. I mean you look great and I’d like to f***ing s**g you but that’s all.”

Cheryl and Dannii repaid him for his foul comments by talking all the way through his performance and refusing to clap when he had finished.

Cheryl looked thunderous as the camera panned around to catch the judges leaping up to give a standing ovation (as they usually do with any celebrity guest). The best Jay got was a bit of awkward applause from Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell, and pure ice from Cheryl and Dannii.

I don't know quite what possessed Jay Kay to act like such a tool and be so insulting to them, but frankly, I am more mystified by why he feels he is so qualified to comment.

He is by no means a reference point for anything apart from the occasional album, being small in stature and wearing daft hats!



Cheryl & Dannii - Bothered?  Nah!



More puzzling still is how he thought putting himself on a stage in front of the girls after his tirade of abuse was ever going to be a good idea.

Unless he is just a headline seeking fame junkie......Which is I suppose could be the greatest irony of all.

Getting himself some column inches by slating Cheryl and Dannii as being useless, is farcical when you consider that there is probably no two women who secure more press coverage in a day than he will manage in a year under any other circumstance!


Tragic!

X Factor Madness!

Here in the UK, the X Factor has just kicked off its run of live shows that will lead us through to Christmas and the inevitable Christmas Number One single.

To describe the final 16 contestants as a mixed bunch would be an understatement!  And the controversy surrounding the final selection is unbelievable.

The biggest issue for the national press seems to be the fact that a girl with a fabulous voice didn’t get put through to the live shows, in place of someone who messed up two of her three auditions.  Fair enough I suppose.

Gamu

But where it all goes mental is that the girl (Gamu) who didn’t get through is a Zimbabwean who came here as a child eight years ago and who is now facing deportation because her mother has allegedly claimed benefit that she was not entitled to.  This has all come to light thanks to the lovely daily tabloids who felt the need to share Gamu’s life with the whole country.

So now we have street protests and death threats against judges.  We have legal experts being interviewed on national news programmes, debating the rights and wrongs of the situation, and Facebook groups with over a quarter of a million followers that support Gamu and threaten the judge who didn’t put her through (Cheryl Cole).

This weekend saw the first live show, and it was clear that Cheryl was going to have a difficult night, finding for the first time in three series that she was being booed by the audience.

Katie

When the girl (Katie Waissell) who was put through in place of Gamu was saved by the judges when the public vote placed her in the bottom two, the audience booed, and today the tabloids are awash with front pages screaming for her to be “booted off” and complaining that she has no right to be there.

So I ask you…..has the world gone mad?  When did news turn from being about war and crime and politics to being about two young girls who want to sing and so enter a singing competition?

My take on all of this is simple. 

Gamu didn’t make it through.  Big deal.  Neither did Kerry Arindell or Annastacia Baker.  Are they on the front pages of the newspapers crying foul play or mistreatment?  Nope.

Gamu’s mother has possibly done something wrong.  Big deal.  Let the legal system sort it out.  If she has, then so be it.  If she hasn’t, all the better – but since when did entering a TV talent competition give a person the right to residence in a country irrespective of their legal right to remain?

Cheryl Cole

I wanted Gamu to go through in place of Katie but I have to say, my life is not overwhelmingly altered by the fact that she didn’t!  I don’t feel compelled to travel to Scotland and stand outside her flat with a placard pleading for her to be able to stay.  I don’t have a deep seated need to send Cheryl Cole a threatening message.  I have a life.

Isn’t it time that we got back to what’s actually important?  What about the fact that the UK is in the grip of financial crisis or the fact that there are men and women fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq?  What about the fact that there are countries out there suffering freak weather with devastating impacts?  How about devoting some of those wasted X Factor column inches to promoting breast cancer awareness or similar?   

I mean, after all….It is only a TV show.  Right?