Why trains put me off

[Louisa]

I came across this story the other day, and it's related to West Dulwich station - a place which I always thought was one of the safest local stations. An elderly man was beaten and thrown off a packed train for politely asking someone to move so he could get off the train (allegedly). Read below.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=473854&in_page_id=1770&ito=1490

[Administrator]

Lounged

[SeanMacGabhann]

That story, whilst true, has been recycled by a number of papers since the event months ago, secifically to stir up fear

Come on Louisa, you telling me people haven't been killed/attacked by other drivers in road-rage incidents?

[Jah Lush]

It's an horrendous story Louisa and one that we are sadly becoming all too familiar with in this country. But, I must add that I'm rather disconcerted that you have chosen to pull it from the awful Daily Mail.

[*Bob*]

I can't click on that link. I'm allergic to links to Daily Mail stories.

Do you have anything that comes from a real newspaper?

[mockney piers]

A foreign house guest this weekend bought the Daily Rail this weekend.

I perused just for a laugh and loved the huge editorial, a conjectural fiction written in psat tense reportage style charting how jackbooted gendarmes kick down the doors of terrified shop-keepers in Throcking selling produce in pounds and ounces.

Hilarious. I obviously tutored the lad in the modern mores of English newspapers.

*found it, superb*

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=474658&in_page_id=1811

[Louisa]

I am not a big fan of the Daily Mail either, but I have read this story in other newspapers too. If I had posted Guardian or Independent articles would you guys be up in arms? I am not here to discuss the political spectrum, just the fact that this poor old guy was (allegedly) brutally attacked, pushed off a train and left for dead! I dont wish to make light of the subject at hand here.

One of the many reasons I choose not to use public transport is outlined by this case. This was a packed train, and not a single person intervened to try and prevent this guy from doing this?! No one chased after him? This is why I hate public transport in London. I am not pretending to know all the facts about this case, but what strikes me is that one of the safer local stations had such a violent attack take place on a busy commuter train! Of course I am going to raise this as an issue! And sean, I think road rage is different because I can lock the doors and know the chances of someone getting to me are slim, on public transport that is not the case!

[SeanMacGabhann]

Aha ! (oops, too keen)

I deliberately didn't mention any papers and made the specific point about how this doesn't really differe from the frightening attacks I have read about in what sociologists are calling "driver-on-driver" violence

Which didn't get replied to. (harrumph)

[mockney piers]

Anyone who reads private eye will be acquainted with how often the Daily Mail drags up old news to serve its nefarious ends.

This is a terrible story, but would have been front page news when it happened. It's just scaremongering to give it a huge profile in the middle of a trial, not even at conviction or sentencing.

If we believe the Daily Mail, then anything Diana related, no matter how spurious or old hat is deemed newsworthy!!

[Louisa]

If you want to talk about rehashing old stories at trials then lets look at the case of that 15 year old lad in Scotland who was picked up and burnt alive by 3 gang members. This story didnt make the national press at all until the trial date, when the BBC had it as a headline story! That is equally as bad.. and even worse because it involved potentially race related issues!

[Jah Lush]

mockney piers Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> If we believe the Daily Mail, then anything Diana

> related, no matter how spurious or old hat is

> deemed newsworthy!!

Actually, that would be the Daily Express which should be now referred to as the Daily Diana.

[mockney piers]

Yes of course Jah, sorry I try to avoid both if at all possible.

And yes Louisa, the BBC can be pretty bad too.

[Jeremy]

To be fair I think this incident was fairly isolated, it's not often you hear of this sort of trouble on the train.

The bus on the other hand... that's a whole different kettle of fish.

[lozzyloz]

I agree with you Louisa. I was once travelling on a packed tube train on the way to work and unknowingly wearing two different shoes. Nobody bothered to say anything. Imagine my embarrassment at the office!

[AnotherPaul]

Bloke beaten up on train. Sad but really, so what? We live in a city of 8 million, some of them will do nasty things. That's not news.

A lot of journalists recycle, putting filling column inches and airtime ahead of timeliness. Handily it also means they don't have to go out and find stories which have just happened or, wait for it, investigate stories which aren't already bleedin' obvious. There's no dignity in it, or any value to us the paper reading public.

How anyone can 'not be fan of The Mail' and still read it baffles me. The Mail, The Standard and The Express are pollutants and should carry health warnings as such.

Which brings me to?

ap

[Louisa]

No offence AP, but I think one of the greatest things we have in this country is freedom of the press. I agree that well over half of the tabloid crap out there is all or partly lies, but I still think the British public are smart enough to make up their own minds about what is true and what is fantasy.

[Jah Lush]

Also, it's an ongoing story as it has now gone to court and the accused is pleading his alleged innocence.

[bald marauder]

That's a big assumption Louisa, and probably for the most part true, but I fear that some rather biased and sensationalised coverage slips through some people's 'crap' detectors...

[Louisa]

I agree BM, but what do you suggest we do about it? Patronise people into thinking we know best about what is true and what is not? Thats hardly democratic. The great thing about freedom of the press is that it keeps politics, famous faces, and sections of the media in check. People should take it upon themselves to double check these things if they suspect them to be false.

[bald marauder]

If only we had the time (or in some cases inclination) to double-check! Ultimately people make their own choices about their sources of information, and are accountable for how that affects them. Unfortunately, other people sometimes suffer as a consequence, ie victims of race-related violence that has been stoked by jingoistic headlines and biased coverage of immigrants/'scroungers'.

[AnotherPaul]

That's a laudable idea Louisa, sounds nice too but what does "the British public are smart enough to make up their own minds about what is true and what is fantasy" actually mean?

The Mail et al are insidious in that they peddle out of date scare stories which encourage the idea that we're more at risk from crime than we actually are. And they do this to sell papers, not to help us know more about what's going on.

All the while real stories go unreported simply because the readership would be put off and buy some other rag.

It's too easy to say tabloids are crap, they've been in the toilet for years. The Mail is particularly offensive as it has a veneer of intelligence which is why it's so popular with people who wish to seem well informed without all that difficult stuff they don't agree with. The Mail manages this by writing stories with more words than tabloids and they don't have so many breasts on display. It imbues a kind of clubby common sense and most importantly will never embarrass one in front of peers.

But sure as night follows day, read enough copies of The Mail and any good decent human being's brain will turn to mush. And mushy brains aren't very good at deciding what's true and what is fantasy.

[*Bob*]

The really insidious thing about the Daily Hell is that it markets itself (to 'middle England', whoever that is) as a perfectly reasonable common-sense read for those who can't be arsed to deal with (what used to be called) a broadsheet but feel that a tabloid is beneath them.

It's 'somewhere in the middle', many a parent of girlfriend x or y has often said to me, as they stir their tea on a Sunday morning whilst listening to Radio Quiet. Arrgghhh!

[Brendan]

Flying British Airways from South Africa to England a while back I asked if they had any British newspapers so I could get back up to speed with current events etc. All they had was 5 copies of the Daily Mail.

[Asset]

now, what does that tell us?

[Louisa]

I love the way this thread has gone from talking about a brutal attack on an elderly man, to political banter about a tabloid type newspaper!...