YOU'RE SATIRED!

Apart from the bitter disappointment of Germany being knocked out of the World Cup (they were my bleeding pick! I blame that damned Paul the Octopus), I sincerely thought that there was only one thing happening in the world. What was that, you ask? Oh, you don’t need to ask? Because everyone and his dog has been literally glued to the TV screen watching the Raoul Moat saga unfold. Two manhunts for Mad Men in less than a month? This would never have happened under Labour. But that’s not the point here. I am disgusted with a lot of things, from pigs (Oh, the irony!) to my children, but the media saturation of the Moat manhunt has truly repulsed me. All the media have been complicit in this saturation (well, apart from The Independent, which had on their front cover yesterday something about Haiti!). Even BBC News could not resist the lure of a story that’s well-travelled, and more than likely to draw the punters.

But, as always, my real issue is with the reprehensible Sky News. If I thought their coverage of the Cumbria shootings was twisted, sickening, and exploitative, then this Moat Manhunt coverage was...can’t think of more hyperbole, Mrs. Sucrose has hidden the thesaurus. But the Moat Manhunt coverage multiplied the Cumbria exploitation by a thousand. At least. Now, with this coverage of Moat, Sky (and all other media outlets) already had the story written for them; the author was Derrick Bird. So we have the long, pointless, drawn out coverage of places where the murder was committed. Constant interviews with locals/eyewitnesses, pushing them to paint an exaggerated picture. Sky News basically harassed locals and pushed them to fill air time, asking silly questions like ‘What did you think of the murderer?’ Well, no one’s going to say he was a cracking chap, are they? Constant interviews with relatives, usually admonishing the murderer/challenging him to show his face. There are the maps of England, pinpointing the locations where the murderer has been (or is thought to have been). Of course, then there’s the coverage of said locations, sometimes even with the dreaded Sky Copter. To top off the exploitation, we are presented with a series of so-called experts, and the inevitable hypothetical answers to the question: Why did he do it? And there was also the mind-blowing advice from ‘survival experts’ on how to survive in Northumbria, in bizarre, pseudo-Bear Grylls segments.

This is why it’s been an incredibly easy week for the media; they already know the drill, thanks to the Cumbria shootings. They have the beginning (murder), middle (saturation), and the end (capture/death/suicide of murderer). It’s all done to draw the viewers in, and (for Sky News) to get that much-coveted BAFTA award. They ignore everything else, to the detriment of the viewer. Surely there were other things going on in the world? For example, yesterday there was an earthquake measuring at 6.2-magnitude south of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. But watching Sky News, you’d never have known that. Instead, we had the disturbing footage of what happened after Moat shot himself. As a grown, confident, hardened man like myself, I rarely get disturbed by anything (Paranormal Activity? HA!), but the shouting of the policemen in this film perturbed me greatly. Surely Sky News should have put some disclaimers before showing this footage. And why did they need to show it every ten minutes? We also had the footage of an EMPTY ROOM where the police were to have a press conference. All Sky News showed us was this empty room, for at least fifteen minutes. Hardly important, is it?















Sky News should be taken to task for their coverage of the Moat Manhunt this week, but Ofcom has let them off once this week, and probably will do again. Johann Hari had a point when he said that the media encourages this type of thing, and Sky News is the paragon of media exploitation. I’m glad that they stopped showing the Sky News advert of Cameron becoming Prime Minister, but to replace it with ‘THE HUNT IS ON,’ an advert advertising their coverage of the Moat Manhunt? It was complete with sinister music, and vile shots from the SkyCopter. Truly repulsive. I hate to inadvertently promote their website, but take a look at the front page, if your conscience will allow you. The top headlines are all about Raoul Moat. They STILL have a section called HUNT FOR THE GUNMAN, which is inaccurate: the hunt is over (and, if you physically can, scroll down a little further: Tim Marshall has a blog called ‘The Value of Stoning Women To Death.’ He basically advocates stoning in the Middle East. What a lovely chap!). I would say that they’re flogging a dead horse, but that would be distasteful...

I hate Kay Burley with a passion. This week she has pushed me over the edge, almost to suicide. I’ve talked about her reprehensible election and post-election coverage before, but she was unforgiveable here. She is an awful news presenter, blatantly biased with a voice like nails scratching a chalkboard. She’s a vicious bully. She pushes people to give the answer she wants, then disposes with them when they’re not useful. And Sky News had the gall to get Burley out of bed to report on Moat’s final hours. And then Paul Gascoigne turned up! Burley/Sky News cannot be blamed for this, but it turned a traumatic event into some kind of circus, with the media waiting for the BIG ACT (suicide/final shootout) to happen. The crazed ex-football player told a local radio station that he had brought Moat “a can of lager, some chicken, a mobile phone and something to keep warm”. He added: “I have come all the way from Newcastle to Rothbury to find him, have a chat with him.” The event took a turn for the absurd, and made the ending inevitable.

But what happens after the death of the murderer? Sky News chose to drag the story out for an indefinite period by questioning the capability of the police throughout the manhunt, and especially their conduct during the negotiations. Who shot first? The police fired a taser gun-did this cause him to kill himself? The IPCC is now investigating the negotiations and the taser incident. Of course, the capability of the police should be questioned, by not fawned upon in the way Sky News has done. They initially ‘forgot’ to include footage on Saturday morning where police talked about Moat’s unhappiness with the media. Funnily enough, Channel 4 showed this footage. Now, Sky News has included this in their headlines. Media outlets were given an off-the-record briefing asking them to refrain from reporting anything about Moat's past history, and for ‘revelations’ about his private life to be removed from news websites. Sky News have an article entitled ‘Police Praised For Raoul Moat Investigation ,’ and the first line is: “A former firearms adviser has praised police for their actions during the stand-off with Raoul Moat, despite its tragic outcome.” Of course, the emphasis is on ‘tragic outcome.’ Sky News always finds a way to keep a story going, blurring the line between new being reported and news being created.

Now, Sky News is not the only media outlet guilty of exploiting the manhunt. But it is the worst case of said exploitation. The arena is wide open for copycats, who will take on the ‘inspiration’ of Bird and Moat, knowing that the media will unleash on their resources on covering their murders. Sky News is the frontrunner, the leader of the pack when it comes to news. All the others lag behind, and have to emulate Sky News to keep up. And no news channel has been as excruciating (got the thesaurus back!) as Sky News. The adverts for Sky News on Sky News, reminding us that the ‘hunt is on.’ Harassing locals and relatives, pushing them for answers. Spinning their own Moat motives, using evidence from supposed ‘experts’. Survival hints and tips for people in Northumbria. And the relentless footage, not letting anything from the outside world in. They used their file on ‘Derrick Bird exploitation,’ as all of this has happened before...and (thanks to Sky News) all of this could happen again. What do we, as the viewer, gain from such exploitation? What do we gain from looking at empty roads, where the murderer has walked through? The viewer is just a number, one that the people behind Sky News hope to hook by giving them a drip feed of ‘Breaking News’ that happened three hours ago. Sky News must be stopped...and soon.