NotW is now really OLD notw. Old news is never good, and kind of defeats the very idea of ‘news’-as-something-new. It’s really quite sad to see, as a result, the same desperate condemnations of Cameron-over-Coulson and articles about Wendi Deng’s left-hook taking precedence over calls for international aid to Somalia.
Two parts of Somalia are officially in famine. Worst drought in 60 years. People knew this was coming – UNICEF has issued warnings about this famine since January. It has been reduced to much less than even a footnote in the media – it’s been the link that one can’t find on the front pages, the story that doesn’t come up on the sidebar of ‘interesting’ things.
Shaving foam and sordid little scandals which allow the general public and the rest of the media world to feel smug about themselves and holier-than-thou about everybody, however, feature a-plenty. The media needs to grow up: its job is to report news as it breaks and tell people things they need to know. Feasting parasitically on News Corp’s carcass can wait another day – right now, the Somalian kids don’t have food.
