Thursday, March 29, 2012

The illusion of choice


What the media critics of bloggers forget is that, by and large, most of us blog for one particular reason – to make up for the defects of the MSM. We write about the things they miss, or add analysis of issues which they seem incapable of understanding.

When a newspaper does a good job, therefore, it is to be applauded, as with The Daily Mail, which is beginning to make serious inroads into the "stolen children" issue. Not yet though has it seized upon the serial inadequacy of the childrens' minister, Tim Loughton, whose incompetence as a high official gives adequate testimony to the decay of our political system.

One might thus return to The Boy's extruded verbal material where he writes so glowingly of "choice". What choice have aggrieved and injured parents, when the judicial system abuses them and the politicians fail to respond? Then, of course, it is for the media to take up cudgels, as the Mail is finally doing, long after Booker has been ploughing a solitary furrow on the issue for some years. Better late than never, one has to say.

But speaking of choice, compare the triviality of The Guardian on what it chooses to call the "pasty tax", with our analysis. Which one would you rather have? Yet, perhaps unsurprisingly, the self-same Guardian, failing across the board on so many issues, would have comments restricted.

If we followed that paper's direction, we would as a result see a progression of failures in the "stolen children" issue – the authorities, the judiciary, the politicians and then the media. And, to complete the suite, the newspaper would silence the bloggers as well. When so much choice is an illusion, it seems that the only option The Guardian would allow us is between being uninformed or ill-informed.

 No wonder this is the Boy's favourite newspaper.

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