The Sun’s sudden interest in Austria

The Sun has little time for Europe. With the exception of the occasional assault on the European Union, the affairs of our European brothers are generally ignored.

This was the fate of Austria until three weeks ago when the Sun reported on the secret cellar revelations of Josef Fritzl and sparked a streak of consecutive days of continuous coverage. 

No one would doubt that the actions of Josef Fritzl are truely appalling and inconceivable to any right-minded reader. The facts of the case read like the plot of a gruesome, x-rated horror movie.

The Sun have gone to town on their coverage. Josef Fritzl has been described as the cellar monster, an evil beast, warped, an incest fiend, depraved, a brute, the rape monster, the devil dad who “spent up to a month venting his lust in fleshpots” on holiday in Thailand.

One wonders what purpose this overblown language serves. Is it designed to point out that, just in case we weren’t sure, that Fritzl’s actions are not acceptable? Or is it just the rantings of the inarticulate who cannot find a suitable tone to describe the outrage felt?

If anything such language undermines the reporting of the story. The unreality of monsters, devils and beasts is absurd and insensitive to some very real and horrific human suffering.

Hitler Link

The Sun also attempted clumsily to forge a link between Fritzl and Hitler. Presumbly, and quite unnecessarily, this decision attempted to portray the events as even more shocking than first realised, to give fresh impetus to maintain the story for a few more days on the front pages and to produce more senational stories than their competitors.

And so on May 3 the Sun claimed that as a child of 3, young Fritzl may have been part of a crowd that saluted Hitler. Fritzl may have joined the Hitler Youth, although there is no evidence of this. But undoubtedly claims the Sun he must’ve have been aware of nearby Nazi death camps and this almost definitely was the reason why he was looking surly in a photograph taken when he was 16.

If this isn’t convincing enough (what more do you people need? Evidence?) the paper led on May 9 with the headline “Hitler made me do it” with the full story promised on pages 4,5, 6 & 7. 

The full story it transpired was only that Fritzl was influenced by Nazi ideals of “strict discipline”, “the need to be controlled” and “the respect of authority”.

Essentially the only evidence the Sun produced is that Fritzl lived under Nazi rule during the late 30s and early 40s. An accusation you could easily level at a number of Germans, Austrians, Poles, Belgians, Dutch, Russians, French and others alive during that period. 

Dominic Lawson, writing for the Independent, said of this ‘inventive’ theory: “As a heap of innuendo piled upon non sequitur, this explanation for what went on in a basement in Amstetten takes some beating”.  

Lorraine Kelly

In all this hyperbole, the Sun did have one clear head who was able to look at the bigger picture. This was Lorraine Kelly.

In her column on May 3 she suggested a specifically created Austrian police unit should be set up to search every cellar in the country in case there were more horrors hidden away.

Using her extensive knowledge of Austria she claimed the whole case was endemic of a secretive, insular country still shaped by its occupation by the Nazis.

As Mark Lawson said in his Guardian column we Britons would be pretty offended if the Austrians used similarly unqualified, grotesque generalisations to suggest Fred West characterised our nation’s attitude to family and sex.

Furthermore, she expressed her fears that Fritzl would never face justice but just become “some sort of macabre celebrity”. I would have thought three weeks of intense coverage in a foreign newspaper examining every lurid detail will certainly aid the process. 

Fortunately for Austria, the Sun’s interest is waning. Fritzl stories have now been relegated to much later pages and soon the trail will be abandoned completely. Then the Sun will have to find another ‘beast’ to shout about. Oh look here comes Peter Sutcliffe on the front page.

The Sun takes a stand on tasteless tours

The Sun were quick to criticise ‘goulish tourists’ who were taking tours around the hotel complex in Praia da Luz where Madeleine McCann went missing over a year ago.

The report said that some of the ‘sick sightseers’ were even taking snaps of their children outside the hotel room were Maddie was believed to have been abducted from.

It was even suggested that the tours were official with tour guides.

The very idea of such prurient curiosity and interference into the private grieving of a family, especially with a mind to profit from it, is clearly offensive to an organisation which has shifted millions of newspapers on the story which has had very few genuine developments since it broke.

And as Anorak News point out, the Sun’s sister paper the News of the World were the first to give the British public a guided tour into the McCann’s holiday flat. They played a very tasteful child catcher hide and seek, suggesting methods in which the devious fiend could have grabbed Maddie and avoided the returning Kate and Gerry. 

And such outrage does not extend to the victims of ‘dungeon beast’ Josef Fritzl, whose homemade torture cellar you can now visit through the Sun’s virtual tour.

 

 

Sun columnists and their free rein to offend

It would appear that the Sun has finally lost patience with New Labour. Front page splash after front page splash pile on the misery for Gordon Brown’s beleagured government.

The most savage criticism and opprobrium meted out to Bottler Brown comes unsurprisingly from the Sun’s army of angry columnists. What is surprising is the level of abuse the columnists are allowed to get away with.

Trevor Kavanagh on May 12 unfavourably compared our PM to fallen Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was executed for genocide and crimes against the state following a popular revolution.

Stronger, and less tastefully still, Kelvin MacKenzie claimed on May 1 that many people in the country would be happy to strangle Gordon until his one good eye popped out.

Greater abuse followed from the poisoned pen of Jon Gaunt who on May 9 claimed that Gary Glitter, a convicted paedophile, has more chance of a comeback than Bottler Brown.

These outrageous personal slurs are not only indicative of the Sun’s rapid loss of faith in Gordon Brown but highlight the complete lack of editorial control or censor under which these high profile and well paid columnists operate.  

Food shortage insult

Jeremy Clarkson on May 10 dismissed the global food shortage on account of the shelves at his local Sainsbury’s store being rammed. To top this gloriously insensitive and ignorant statement off the following double page spread described the plight of starving Burmese children.

How else can such lame, ill-considered and moronic thoughts be allowed in a national newspaper unless there is a reluctance on the behalf of editing staff to ask star columnists to re-submit ideas which they have patently taken no time to consider and which fall well below journalistic standards of taste and decency.

Chief offender so far this month must go to Ally Ross who managed to squeeze out three spectacularly insensitive remarks in his column on May 9.

First he asked whether recently deceased comedian Mike Reid would have to defend his Baron title won on a recent posthumously shown ITV show on Living TV’s ghost hunting programme Most Haunted.

Secondly he suggested that self confessed bulimic John Prescott should appear on Celebrity Freaky Eaters.

And finally he produced a litany of lame tsunami puns to review ITV drama Flood. His column page preceded a double page spread on the victims of the Burma cyclone.

Editors should be demanding more from their star turns than just a flow of tasteless invective. Gordon Brown would be the first to agree.

The Sun is no longer bonkers

It was an unusually apologetic response to criticism by the usually bullish, self assured Sun.

Insensitive reporting of Frank Bruno’s detention in a mental health facility provoked an angry response from mental health charties and the public.

The Sun duly bowed its head, said they were very sorry and promised steps would be taken to ensure increased sensitivity for future stories involving mental health issues.

So the old dog agreed to learn some new tricks. But it didn’t take long for the training to wear off.

Admittedly the Sun has toned down its language from the much criticised, insensitive ‘barmy’ and ‘bonkers’.

In its place has come much more subtler turns of phrase; ‘bizarre’, ‘oldball’.

But the continued day in, day out intrusive reporting of troubled stars such as Kerry Katona and Britney Spears seems to indicate the Sun has developed little sensitivity on this issue.

Doubtlessly editors would argue that sales increases and website hits show there is a public interest in these star’s personal problems.

And the paper and the majority of its readers would argue these particular young ladies lost their rights to privacy a long time ago after selling every life detail and inch of flesh to any reporter with a big enough chequebook.

But this free ride surely does not extend to intrusively snapping a young mother, regardless of whether she’s a multi-million selling record artist, in an ambulance in the throes of a severe breakdown.

Imagine if the scenario had been an elderly member of the public suffering from Alzheimer’s. Would front row seat coverage be used?

The main problem here is also the Sun’s main strength, brevity. The Sun is an impact paper, its writing is tight and without unnecesary detail. But it also means its reporting can be lacking in depth and detail.

Whether a celeb is suffering from exhastion, stress, drug abuse or bi-polar diorder the Sun very rarely gives details or explanations. Invariably we are told that the star is troubled. The aim is not to inform, its mere voyeurism. The 21st century circus freak show.

 The paper also fails to acknowledge its own responsibility for the struggling mental health of these stars.

Both Katona and Spears have been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. Undoubtedly the continual intrusion into the everyday life by paparazzi photographers can only exacerbate their conditions.

It seems that not content on playing a huge role in raising these vulnerable women to worldwide fame, the Sun and other tabloids are equally keen to monitor every painful step of their decline.

     

The Sun, sex and xmas

Its hard to read The Sun without your bile duct working in excess of safety capacity and believing that the world is going to the dogs. For an hour every lunchtime, three million people are shouted at in print by a sniggering school kid with a particularly vindictive streak. It tells us the proles who we should like but more importantly who we should despise.

Who should we despise;                                 

– people who tell it like it is                                  

– women who are ‘up for it’                                    

– sports people who are winning                          

And who should we despise;

– people who insist on political correctness

– women who have let themselves go a bit. Or are money grabbers. Or basically aren’t up for it 24/7

– sports people who have lost

Its a pretty fine line for famous people to cope with. One day you’re being feted as a hero, the next you are responsible for the most heinous atrocities in the world. Its only what you would expect from a small kid who changes his friends daily. The sort of kid that calls breasts boobs, bangers, balloons, bristols, globes. Anything just so that mummy doesn’t hear him talking about rude words.