05 December 2008

Abuse by proxy

Appalling though the fake kidnap of Shannon Matthews (engineered, a court decided yesterday, by her mother and uncle to scam reward money) may be, it troubles me to hear a police spokesman saying that the mother "is pure evil".

That sort of approach is expected from the red top press. It doesn't seem helpful to from a supposedly objective public servant.

Nor does it help Shannon. British law is supposed to place the interests above all else; it's hard to see that surrounding Shannon with red top headlines vilifying her mother and effectively written by a member of the law enforcement apparatus conforms to that. She was apparently abused by her family; now the abuse is to be continued by the press with state complicity.

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