A quick one... While He's away...

If only...

"There are, in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil man whether politician or business man, every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine, or newspaper, with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful."

President Theodore Roosevelt, 1906


If every journalist took the words of 'Teddy' Roosevelt to heart, in the the spirit in which they were said, we may eventually find ourselves, as a society, possessing the knowledge and willingness to create a better world for all of us. If our national press starts to give us the real issues, and we take the responsibility as an aflluent society to do something about them, we have nothing to lose, and a better future to gain...

Oh yes, a responsible press. I lose count of the amount of people who tell me they are sick of the Madeline McCann story. Yet these are the same people buying The Sun or The Mirror every morning, believing that they are getting an unbiased, objective view of the world in which we live in. These people are not to blame for society's ills, it is our gutter press. These red topped newspapers constantly flood our extremely impressionable minds with anything they can sensationalise enough for us to be interested. This isn't news, this is business. And we are not intelligent readers with opinions, we are greedy, insatiable consumers.

While I'm probably wasting my time typing this up and posting it, I can only hope that soon we can begin to wake up and refuse to be treated as mindless money making drones, lining the pockets of unscrupulous and irresponisble fat cats.

C

Part 3

I have to admit, I knew Steve was connected, but I never realised the extent. Anyone who can get us out of the country on police bail must know a few people. He'd been planning this all along, just in case. While Mark and I were drinking ourselves sober in the bar for a week and a half, Steve was sat at home on the phone, trying to get us out of this mess. I can never thank him enough. But then, we didn't have to involve ourselves in this at all...

Part 2

“Worst Christmas Ever”, as Mark most eloquently put it. 15 hours in a prison cell on Christmas Eve is never exactly a good time. Then again, all things considered, it could've been a hell of a lot worse. He could've died there and then on the pavement outside the house, but no, crazy fucker just wouldn't stay down. Steroids'll do that to a guy. I guess we have to give him that much credit, people have died from a lot less.