James Murdoch, chief executive of News Corporation, told his reporters that the blatant milking of what was, in reality, a minor offence committed in an unimportant corner of the British Isles proved beyond a shadow of doubt that the desperately sensationalist BBC should be closed down immediately and handed over to him.
“Compare the BBC’s hysterical coverage with the calm, measured professionalism of Sky’s Kay Burley,” he dictated to his attentive hacks. “As for our papers, Raoul Moat hardly featured at all. I believe there may have been a small paragraph on page 27 of Saturday’s Times saying something along the lines of ‘Police ready to arrest minor criminal’, but nothing more.”
Elsewhere in today’s papers, the Sunday Express firmly maintains that the shootings and subsequent manhunt would never have happened at all, if only Raoul Moat had been put on a register the moment he left prison. The Mail on Sunday went one step further, calling for the immediate execution of all prison inmates before another inevitable tragedy unfolded.
Meanwhile, having laid off the last of its reporters, the Independent on Sunday filled its covers by wondering what the week-long manhunt said about us.
A general consensus is emerging within the media industry to the effect that the public’s prurient interest in news and current affairs is a sordid act of voyeurism which should be countered by more opinion pieces and celebrity photo-features.
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