It’s the phone for you, Manuel

This was a comment I left on another blog, but I thought I might as well post it here, it’s sums up my cynical feelings on the world quite nicely and I know I’ve been neglecting my pig sty recently.

“I’m finding the whole thing a bit mohammedtheteddybear-iculous, really. I am curious as to whose interest is being served by all this press coverage, Brand, Ross and Manuel’s manky granddaughter are all going to do pretty nicely out of this as “all publicity is good publicity”, generally (unless you’re Gary Glitter, but let’s not go there).

Who else is benefiting from this?

While the news is showing this, we’re not getting adequate coverage on:

1. The de Menezes case. It was reported today, the first occasion that commuters on the train were allowed to speak in court-they weren’t able to last year during the police’s own investigation (what a surprise!) -that there was NO warning from the police officers before they shot the guy seven times in the head and according to witnesses it was not even clear that they were actually police officers. To me it is far more outrageous and offensive than a lewd answer phone message -the police are trying to get away with this (and will most likely do so) so I bet someone there is very happy that Manuelgate is top of the news agenda.

2. The good old credit crunch-unemployment, home repocessions etc are soaring, but Gordon Brown still sees fit to chastise Brand and Ross.

3. A very important election deciding who will become one of the most powerful people on this planet is coming up in…ooo about 6 days, does that not deserve more than third billing in the news?

Is it just me that is finding this worrying? The most read stories according to the BBC at the moment are about “Ross and Brand”, some Man Utd football deal and “Dr Who”. While we’re reading and talking about stuff like this we’re not focusing on the bigger picture, we’re ignoring more serious injustice (like that arrogant sod being released 18 months early for dangerous driving and causing a 2 year old girl to suffer serious and permanant brain injury and paralysis) and not being outraged and things we should.

It’s completely warped.”