8 November, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Two recent news events (actually, three) have highlighted the staggering level of bias that exists in the British news media.
Last week, the British papers were filled with sheer and utter hysteria concerning medical studies stating that, essentially, anyone who is even a pound overweight is on the fast track to a horrific death. According to these reports, only by being extremely slim can a person avoid death and disease. The Salem Witch Trials seem low-key in comparison to the hysteria I saw in the media regarding these reports. It was, quite literally, sickening. [I will include just a handful of links in this post, but without the front page headlines and graphic images, you won't get the full sense of what it was like.]
In general, the British media have a few topics they are obsessed with at any given time. Right now it’s obesity, global warming, immigrants and Madeleine McCann. In certain newspapers, you really have to search for these stories because they are located behind all the porn. Yes, porn. In newspapers.
The reports on obesity last week played right into the hands of the media and so they gave these reports an inordinate amount of attention.
Fat people = evil.
Thin people = good.
Fat people destined to get cancer and die = fantastic.
This is a quote from an article that ran in the Guardian:
The report from the World Cancer Research Fund has recommended 10 ways to help avoid cancer:
Stay as slim as possible
That was tip number one — stay as slim as possible. Really? By what means? Starvation? Purging? Is anorexia healthy? I’ve known a few anorexic people and they are indeed as slim as possible. Is this really the kind of thing a responsible newspaper publishes? No.
This highlights a major point of ignorance in the media — actually, I would call it journalistic malpractice. There is an assumption that thin people are thin because they eat healthy and exercise. There is a further assumption that fat people don’t exercise and eat unhealthily. Anyone with a even modicum of life experience knows this isn’t true. There are plenty of thin people who are thin because they smoke all day and drink coffee. Is that really a healthy lifestyle?
As someone who has researched, written and published on many topics concerning body image, including weight issues, I can tell you that any medical study concerning obesity needs to be examined very carefully, regardless of its source. The general public like to believe that medical researchers are objective. Time and again, it’s been proven that they aren’t. The authors of major studies on obesity and weight have been discredited (hello, Harvard) when their own personal biases against fat people were uncovered. It’s very common for “researchers” to begin their “research” with a pre-conceived bias and then seek facts and statistics to support this view, discounting everything else. It’s also common for corporations with a vested interest in the results to fund such studies, even though on the face of it, it may be a “university” study.
Not surprisingly, the media threw caution to the wind with these studies, even though they should know better. And make no mistake, they are not the least bit interested in their readers’ health. They want to scare people and make judgments. This is obvious from the language used, which contains an implicit amount of glee.
Now today, on the front page of the Independent, there is a story about a major study from researchers at the CDC in the States that show it’s healthy to be fat, that fat people live longer than thin people. According to this study, being fat comes with many important health benefits. Not surprisingly, this newspaper article quotes people who are outraged that anyone would be irresponsible enough to publish such research, since we all know fat people deserve to die. The article seems a bit snarky in tone. [There is a big article on this today in The New York Times.] I’ll be curious to see if the rest of the media pack pick up on this study and give it as much focus as they did the anti-fat studies. I won’t hold my breath.
In other news, a British student was murdered last week in Italy. It appears that this young woman was killed because she refused to participate in a violent orgy with her roommate (a woman) and two men. The roommate is an American. The two men are Italian and Congolese. Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that in coverage of this story, the focus is on the “American” roommate. It’s always mentioned that she’s American. Why?
Moving on to my last example of media bias, yesterday a Finnish teenager went on a shooting rampage at his school, killing seven of his fellow students, the principal of the school and then himself. He apparently broadcast his intentions on YouTube before he acted. I expected this story to be big news here — after all, it’s a school shooting rampage in a European country. We all know that Europeans are more civilized than the rest of the world.
Much to my surprise, this story isn’t getting a lot of play here. It’s not the top story on the television news or in the papers. Today I’ve actually had difficulty finding any updates on it. If this same event had happened in America, it would be major news here — around the clock coverage, television panel discussions, newspaper headlines, the works. Anytime something like this happens in America, it’s major news. The media here like to cover school shootings in America because it gives them a chance to gloat and feel morally superior. America is a land of heathens, of ignorant gun-toting hillbillies who settle all their problems with guns. Tsk tsk. After the Virginia Tech massacre, the media covered the story continuously, as if it had actually happened here rather than at a university that most Britons had never heard of before. In the commentary I saw on TV and read in the papers and on blogs, many people said outright that Americans deserved such events to happen and that it serves us right for having such liberal gun laws. I was saddened at such hate-filled vitriol.
Now, when the same thing happens in Finland, it gets a 3-second mention on Newsnight. What else was on Newsnight? A report about how a town in Georgia is getting people off welfare, complete with footage of people in the Georgia town watching pig races as entertainment. Yep, that’s the BBC.
Anglofille said @ 3:42 pm | news & politics |
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Gadfleye Says:
November 8th, 2007 at 7:39 pmOh Anglofille, why work yourself up over this? science shcmience! This is George W. Bush’s America, we don’t believe in science anymore. Science is a myth - 4 out of every 5 clinical studies prove that.
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Yep - I’ve noticed the American roommate thing and how much was made of her posing in front of a vintage looking machine gun with a big old smile.
“chilling” they said.
Uh…I’ve posed in front of cannons and battleships and battlements and my husband has posed smiling in front of a machine gun that looked pretty much just like that at a WWII commemoration day in July of 07. Neither one of us, to my knowledge, has ever killed a roommate.
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I’m glad I’m not the only person who noticed this!
I’m also irritated at the way the papers keep stating that the victim did not agree to participate in this orgy, thus she is a “good girl.” If she had agreed to participate, apparently she would have deserved to die. On many levels, this case shows the heinousness of the British tabloid press. (as if we needed more proof.)
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as much as i agree with you, i have to point out that even a short trip back to the u.s. reminds me of how much *worse* it is there. so i guess, if forced to choose, i’ll still take the lesser of two evils.
and the whole american roommate thing is just ludicrous.
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i really think the media here is worse! the american media is a joke too, but i find the media here to be much more deeply misogynistic. i also think the tabloids play a different role here. american tabloids report on celebrity news mostly, whereas british tabloids report on “hard news” and the politicians actually have to take them seriously. that’s just my view. the anti-americanism bothers me too. the attitude towards the US is so condescending.
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Gadfleye Says:
November 9th, 2007 at 6:12 pmI think anti-Americanism is no less condescending than the American attitude that it is the self-appointed leader of the so-called free world, and that it is the duty of America to liberate all nations from tyranny. I mean really, America (or America’s ruling class) looks out for #1 just like the ruling class of every other nation on the planet. Ordinary people are the ones caught in the middle of their turf wars - think Bush clan vs. Hussein clan and you get the idea. People of other nations shouldn’t fool themselves though, if they wielded the kind of power that America wields (or use to wield before George W. Bush shredded America’s standing in the world) they would act no differently. America is one in a long line of tyrannical empires.
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SpliceGirl Says:
November 9th, 2007 at 7:14 pmI find it hard to believe that some of the people commenting here find the American media that biased toward Britain or other countries. When it comes to moronic celebrity stuff sure, our media is annoying and dumb and just plain useless. But in the sense of foreign news I don’t believe this to be true. When Madeline McCann went missing it was all over our magazines, papers, and news and as far as I can tell we are one of the only countries who didn’t rip those parents to shreds for leaving her alone in the room that night. Our news was much more focused on getting her picture out and showing the anguish of her family and airing their pleas for help. Not once did I hear anyone rip on “those British people for being stupid and evil”. From the coverage you would have thought they were American everyone cared so much.
This is also true in regards to the Finnish school shootings. Here it was top news in print and TV. There was nothing focused or derogatory about it being Finland and not us. It was simply, “This is the first school shooting in Finland’s history” and then the facts of what happened.
Gadfleye: It’s obvious you don’t like George W. Bush. But must that be the focus of everything you write? We get it, you don’t like him. Move on. The media in the US is ASTONISHINGLY left wing; turn on any cable news or the news in California and you won’t have to watch for more than a few seconds to hear someone ripping on the president and what the GOP has done wrong that day. If the media has had any “attitude that it is the self-appointed leader of the so-called free world” I haven’t heard or seen it and I watch everyday. Most news outlets spend the day tearing America apart and not reporting positively on it.
And to jen, I don’t know why the media is so much “worse” here. from what I’ve seen of British/foreign news at least we are actually getting NEWS here instead of complete useless non-objective crap. When the Virginia Tech shootings happened, NO ONE on any of the print or news shows I watched (and believe me, it was on every channel for the entire day) ever once surmised this person wasn’t American or an immigrant gone mad because he was Asian. The only outlet that ever printed that that I know of was People magazine when it said his parents were immigrants to this country when he was either a baby or before he was even born (can’t remember which). Do you really think if that happened in Britain the fact that he was Asian and his family immigrants wouldn’t have been the focus of the story instead of all the lives he viciously stole?
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Gadfleye Says:
November 9th, 2007 at 9:16 pmSpliceGirl: Time to take your head out of your backside, this is not about George W. Bush, he just happens to be the tool who currently occupies The White House (although it is fun to mock him just the same). Bill Clinton was no better - same garbage in a different package. Boo hoo hoo, the “liberal” media rips America apart. When America commits evil acts, it deserves to be ripped. Isn’t that what “personal responsibility” is all about (or is that just another conservative buzz phrase)? The “liberal” media is an excuse rolled out by conservatives when they are called to the carpet for committing actions which deserve our contempt. I am neither liberal nor conservative. I am for justice! Is the Iraq War just? Is America’s support for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan just? Is America’s support for global economic inequality just? Is America’s denial of global warming as the polar ice caps melt just? Is torture just? Many of these same actions occur under supposedly “liberal” as well as “conservative” presidents. Justice is not liberal or conservative. Blindly supporting America regardless of its actions in the world, or any other country for that matter, is silly. That’s just cheap nationalism. I don’t think concern for humanity should end at national borders. Support America for good or bad? I think not. As a red-blooded, patriotic American in the true sense of the word, my conscience will not allow that.
But I could never see the point of tuna and sweet corn...
