Charlie Hebdo - Sun Snooping Hypocrisy

While much of Europe’s papers feature one or more cartoons from French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo today, following yesterday’s murderous attack on its Paris offices, the UK’s free and fearless chapter of the Fourth Estate has largely demonstrated that it is of less than perfect courage. And the imperfect courage can be seen to best - or worst, depending on your point of view - effect at the Sun and Mirror.

Both papers, plus the Mail and others, have chosen to publish a photo showing an injured Parisian Police officer about to be executed, rather than anything from Charlie Hebdo. Here on Zelo Street there will be none of that: that is what the nutters who performed the attack want, and if they think they’re getting obedience at this blog, they can take that daft idea and shove it. We don’t take direction from meatheads.

Sadly, the Sun has not only complied with the wishes of those who practice armed thuggery in the name of The Prophet, it has also told its readers that they should accept a surveillance state as the price of combating their behaviour. “Intelligence, including the use of the RIPA anti-terror law for its intended purpose, is our best defence” pontificates today’s editorial, to which I say Rupe’s downmarket troops can shove that one, too.

(c) Doc Hackenbush 2015

But there’s more: “Yet liberals still fret over the perceived assault on civil liberties of spooks analysing emails”. Yes, it’s all the fault of those namby-pamby “liberals”. The only surprise is that the Sun hasn’t got on its high horse and blamed the deeply subversive Guardian, which, as all good Murdoch doggies know, is in some sort of dastardly league with the hated BBC. This is well and truly cracked.

More surveillance leads us to a very nasty place indeed, and well the Sun knows it. And, as for cheering on RIPA, that is hypocrisy of the lowest kind. It was not many weeks ago that they were protesting long and loud about the use of RIPA to force phone companies to hand over call records of Sun hacks and pundits. Now RIPA is very wonderful. And the hypocrisy is not confined to the Sun.

Over at the Mirror, editor-in-chief Lloyd Embley has also used the photo of the Police officer about to be executed. That would be the same Lloyd Embley who went into maximum hand-wringing mode over using photos of the murderous behaviour of ISIS, or whatever they’re calling themselves this week, and took to Twitter to say that his papers were going to occupy the moral high ground and set an example to others.

“After David Haines was murdered pix of him on his knees were on all the front pages. We decided not to do that again. They can’t win” he wrote. Embley has gone back on that one since, and today he doubled down. He has decided that he will do that again - and so they have won. It matters not whether the red-top is centre-right or centre-left in its political outlook, the rank hypocrisy shines through just as strongly.

One thing you can trust the tabloids to be is utterly underserving of anyone’s trust.