Painful Truths

Dogs and killers

Listening to BBC Radio 4's "PM" programme while driving home this evening, I heard that one listener had complained about the BBC giving more airtime to the news of two police dogs killed as a result of being shut in a police car on one of the hottest days of the year than to two British servicemen killed in action in Afghanistan.

The complainant thought that the soldiers' death deserved more attention than the dogs that were roasted alive in a car as a result of a police dog handler's negligence.

Why, I ask? How can the listener justify the argument that the soldiers' death was more deserving of airtime than that of the dogs?

I would argue the opposite. First, the soldiers had voluntarily chosen to join the armed forces. They were trained killers and they were in Afghanistan to kill. They were in a foreign country, not in their own country, not defending their homeland. They were there to kill and they were killed. Those who live by the word shall die by the sword. They must have known that when they joined the army. Or did they enlist to visit exotic places, meet strange people and kill them?

The police dogs, on the other hand, had no choice. Their human handlers had a duty of care towards them. The dogs trusted their handlers but were betrayed. They died painfully, cruelly and needlessly. 

Consequently, of course the news of the dogs' death deserved more airtime. It was not a tragedy or fair game. It was murder.

Enough Michael Jackson

I have just about had enough of the the British media’s wall-to-wall coverage of the death of the US singer Michael Jackson. Throughout yesterday and today, from flagship radio news programmes to prime-time television news, it’s Michael Jackson who dominates the airwaves.

What’s so special about Mr Jackson? The ridiculous assertion by the BBC and others that he is “the world’s most famous singer” is indicative of nothing but that broadcaster’s – and, to be fair, the rest of the British media’s – ethnocentric view of the world. It’s the same when they refer to Britain and the US as the “international community”.

There is nothing special about Mr Jackson. Some like the man and/or his music, others don’t. Personally, I like neither the man nor his music, and I can’t – and have never been able to – stand the sight of his prancing about on video, crotch in hand.

I will remember Michael Jackson as someone who became increasingly weird as time passed. Although in his trial in the US in 2007 he was found not guilty of child sex abuse, he was never able to cast off the shadow of paedophilia.

I will also remember Mr Jackson as an African-American who was ashamed of his blackness and, consequently, tried to change the colour of his skin. His assertion that he has a skin disease lacks credibility: compare and contrast photographs of him when he was black with ones of him as a white weirdo and you will see that he not only seemed to have tried to change his colour, but also his negroid features, e.g. his lips and nose.

Let’s hope that the British media will very soon turn their attention to something more worthy of airtime and column inches. It’s not that there is a dearth of important news in the UK and the rest of the world.