Thursday, 16 April 2009

How dare this woman sell her story!

There's some quite monumental hypocrisy in the Sun's latest leader column, as well as some predictable myopia (url will change):

IF police are proved to have attacked G20 protesters, they must face the consequences.

Yes, quite. I mean, obviously, those videos showing officers pushing people over when they were walking away from them, and that other one showing a woman being slapped with the back of the hand then hit with a baton just aren't enough evidence. We have to hear what the officers themselves think happened, and they might be able to offer a different interpretation, in which case we should always take their word for it over shoddy unclear recorded pictures. It's just common sense.

But alleged “victim” Nicola Fisher loses credibility by hiring celebrity publicist Max Clifford.

The involvement of Mr Clifford turns a serious inquiry into a circus.

How can investigators have faith in Ms Fisher’s claims when she is touting her story to make a pot of gold?


Indeed, how dare Nicola Fisher sell her story? She should instead, like people's celebrity Jade Goody, have refused to make money from circumstances beyond her control and resolutely stood against using charlatans like Mr Clifford for monetary gain, ensuring that her death was not turned into a public spectacle. She should further take heed of the example of Jade's widower, Jack Tweed, who is bravely facing up to his second spell inside as a victim of a miscarriage of justice, rather than complaining about his lot through the pages of a tabloid newspaper.

Incidentally, the Sun's smearing of Ms Fisher is rather mild compared to the treatment she's getting in the Mail, although the Sun is undoubtedly the police's friend, which the Mail's relationship is far more ambiguous.

4 comments:

Sim-O said...

Selling your story to the papers may not be to everyones taste. The geniune altruistic thing would be to just talk to one of them.

But hey, this is a different kettle of fish to a kiss & tell or talking to the papers about your suddenly famous mate.

Tim said...

So the photos* that The Sun(and The Mail) paid for the previous week and the account of events that came with them, don't count as credible evidence.

(*Sold through mrpaparazzi.com, but no longer watermarked as such, you'll note.)

It leaves a nasty taste in the mouth, sure (I almost blogged a short note about the tasteful watermark and the guy who sold the images instead of releasing them into the public domain) but The Sun can't be bitching about it with any credibility, even if we restrict debate to this single event.

Daniel Hoffmann-Gill said...

This is a great piece, good find, oh the fucking horror of this bloody newspaper.

Unknown said...

Awwww she got hit by the naughty policeman...awww, poor dear. Of course, this incident would never have happened if they turned the water cannons at them...and thrown in a few bars of soap in there for good measure. Crowd control and personal hygiene in one fell swoop. Result!

But yeah, police brutality...yeah, terrible business. They should try protesting in Paris etc. and then compare their injuries with the ones meted our by British bobbies.

But as soon as I heard she came from Brighton I realised that she was no longer credible. :D