If you must give this rag the views and the pennies its advertisers and corporate owners demand then that is for your conscience but if you do make sure you also read the comments at the bottom of this article. Most are damning of this pernicious excuse for journalism and the complete lack of humanity in its reporting. The trainee journo is probably aspiring to The Sun or some other gutter media in which trashing people for their class, ethnicity, gender or sexuality is all in a days work.
Personally I wince when anyone shares this sad joke of a local newspaper. It’s headlines are straight out of Tales of the Crypt. If your dead and it’s messy you are guaranteed your Andy Warhol moment. Drowned? You are in. Car crash? In. Hung? In. Punch up? In. Natural causes? Possibly after they have raided your Facebook page. It is a crumby down market rag that could and should be acting with professional integrity but in fact is on its knees in the sewer with a straw.
It reminds me of the new Alexander Starritt novel based on a tabloid newsroom. Early on he describes the adolescent and inexperienced young journos with a withering explication. ‘Young skin made pasty by lack of sunlight, dulled gazes, lank hair, stress related acne and forearms that cramped with strain injury as they lifted the Maltesers, crisps, chocolate biscuits and tea that kept the online alive and awake while they ruined their eyes, their health and their profession.’
The total amount stolen here is £32.96. WTF! Take a look around you. Is this it? Jumping on people who are desperate and writing this shit.
One comment that caught my attention on social media under this article was the following:
‘So classic for Dorset Echo. Precisely why I don’t read the rag anymore. Shoddy journalism and a complete lack of empathy for others.
On a side note how on Earth have the court taken pity on her by charging her £20 for court proceedings when it’s clear she doesn’t have the money to even buy food…?’
Sums it up doesn’t it. The examples to support both points would take months to narrate but it’s time people voted with their senses. If you want change boycott this waste of space journalism. If you are merely waiting for the worms and filling your time with full on baked ineptitude – keep consuming it.
The parody of choice.
Douglas James
