The Scottish Express (basically the Daily Express but with references to Scotland messily slapped all over it to try and flog copies to SNP members) has hit a new low with this article. It was removed from the Express’s web site after an outcry… and it’s easy to see why. Honestly. Look at it. It’s pure banality dressed as a scandal.
Yes… that’s right. The Express thinks that the survivors of the Dunblane massacre having social network profiles is… news. And not just news. Scandal. This was on the front page of the Express (as evidenced by the ‘from page one’ at the top). Don’t believe me? Here it is for good measure.
What the Express has done here is something that was previously thought impossible: it’s sunk lower than the Daily Star in finding news. Sunday was something of a slow news day, particularly for tabloids, so to populate the front page, aside from the masses of free shit and ‘£9.50 holidays’ offer that in no way sounds like that offered by the Sun for several years now, they dig up an absolute non-story.
How did the Express justify this garbage? Well, it’s on social networking sites. Therefore, it must be evil. The only people who go on social networking sites are drunk teenagers and paedos. Yeah, right.
The sub-headline screams that the survivors ‘[boast] of sex, drink and violence as they turn 18.’ Well, if they’re 18, sex and drink are perfectly legal, and of course people get into pub fights. What do you expect? At any and every school, there was always the clique of children who refused to work, walked around like they owned the place, and ended up as benefit spongers on a council estate with around seventeen children by twenty different women (yes, really). You know the people I’m talking about. Even previously ‘nice’ children may end up getting involved in altercations.
Of course, the Obsess backed this up with rent-a-gobs galore, including the grandmother of one of the Dunblane casualties who claimed that the pages ‘brought shame’ to the community. Well, it would have brought a lot less shame on the community if you hadn’t decided that suddenly the whole of Scotland needed to know about it, wouldn’t it? There’s also a misquoted Tory politician (it’s not often I side with the Conservatives, but in this case, it’s against the common enemy) who was ‘never asked’ about Dunblane.
To add to the social networks are evil idea, the Express put this story next to a sidebar that talks of bullying over social networking of teachers. There’s no denying this is a problem, but just marvel at this lazy journalism. Actually, go and get something to treat yourself with first, like a Mars bar or a cold glass of Coke. Then come back and look in awe at the stupidity.
Now police are warning they will investigate any child using social network sites, such as Bebo, Facebook and Rate My Teachers, to abuse teachers.
The warning comes less than two years [and that's a short amount of time? -Ed.] after a [what? just one?] pupil in Aberdeenshire was fined in court for urging classmates to “kick the hell out of” their teacher.
Yes, because that never happened at the schools the Express’s editors and journalists went to.