PEOPLE WILL THINK

"I am the publisher of the Enquirer. As such, it is my duty - I'll let you in on a little secret, it is also my pleasure - to see to it that decent, hard-working people of this city are

not robbed blind by a group of money mad pirates because, God help them, they have no one to look after their interests! I'll let you in on another little secret, Mr. Thatcher. I think

I'm the man to do it. You see, I have money and property -If I don't defend the interests of

the underprivileged, somebody else will - maybe somebody without any money or any property and that would be too bad." Charles Foster Kane

Why do the tabloid press thrive on negativity? It has to be because it sells papers. Money, that's their bottom line. But why do people like to read negative stories, hear about bad things and get gratification from controversy?

If sales didn't boom with their stories of bile they wouldn't publish them.

I personally don't care what celebrity A says about celebrity B. I'm not invested in a bloke that had seven children by the age of 19. I'm not interested in what a professional royal watcher (and what sort of a job is that anyway?) speculates about what one of the Windsors thinks about something.

But, what is important is the way in which the tabloid press use the unique platform they have to deliver the truth, expose corruption and inform the public fairly and impartially. This was once the default position of the press; a noble pursuit of the truth.

Charles Foster Kane : Now look, Mr. Carter, here's a front-page story in the Chronicle about a Mrs. Harry Silverstone in Brooklyn who's missing. Now, she's probably murdered. Here's a picture of her in the Chronicle. Why isn't there something about it in the Inquirer?

Mr Carter: Because we are running a newspaper...

Mr Carter: There's no proof that that woman is murdered, or even that she's dead...It's not our function to report the gossip. If we were interested in that kind of thing, Mr. Kane, we could fill the paper twice over daily.

Charles Foster Kane: Mr. Carter, that's the kind of thing we are going to be interested in, from now on.

What tabloidism has wrought is the exploitation of the very worst in people. The beady eye of the envious neighbour peeping through the net curtains with scant regard of the consequences to the subject of scrutiny.

Disparaging articles based on Race and Class shift units and the thinly veiled 'subtlety' with which these stories are constructed is a national disgrace, but still those stories are lapped up.

Once The Sun was the prime mover in the print media of hate but this style has been adopted across the board with the Daily Mail at the pseudo respectable forefront of gotcha journalism.

Is it the case that demand feeds the tabloids or the tabloids create demand? What's clear is that there are dark forces at work and once a subject is targeted they don't let go. Recent  events show clearly that a sustained attack can take place for no reason other than prejudices and preconceptions.

I don't read, much less buy, tabloids but unfortunately a hell of a lot of people do and as long as this is the case demonisation of difference will continue to be legitimised.

The institution of a free press based on values has been replaced with an Orwellian media that instructs people in how to fear difference and exploit suffering. The best intentions of genuine newspaper men and women has been superseded by trenchant manipulation that, rather than being met with disdain and outrage is embraced by many.

“- Emily Monroe Norton Kane: Charles, people will think...

-Charles Foster Kane: What I tell them to think.”