Sex and Sleaze; Whatever Happened to Journalistic Integrity?

Following on from my previous post In All Seriousness this week the outcome of the UK general election, a hung parliament, finally bore fruit with the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats announcing the first coalition government since Churchill's during the Second World War.  This coalition, I hope, will usher in a new period of genuine progressive politics. I'm very happy about this outcome and, having long been a supporter of the Liberal Democrats, hope that their leader Nick Clegg and our new Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, will show maturity and integrity by working together to bring about real social, economic and political change.

On a slightly different tangent, but one that has been brought to my attention yet again, is that MPs and high profile personalities are often the victims of ridiculous media scrutiny beyond what is morally acceptable. We all have skeletons in our closets but, fortunately, through our anonymity, most of us are able to keep the door firmly shut upon such intrusion. Alas, for some personalities this is not the case and media revelations are often spurious or, even if truthful, have little relevance or bearing upon the victim's competence. For example, do we really need to know about youthful indiscretions, love affairs or university frolics? I don't think we do, unless there are exceptional circumstances which raise legitimate concerns.

Personally, and I know I've said this before, I intensely dislike the scrutiny and harassment both politicians and celebrities have to endure. Whilst there is an acceptable and understandable degree of public interest if one works in a high profile job, I believe the media should exhibit better self regulation when it comes to thrusting personal details into the limelight. Frankly, unless such revelations can be totally justified it's shoddy and unpleasant behaviour.

Our new Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has also been the victim of this excessive media intrusion - by none other than the less than commendable Piers Morgan, former editor of the Daily Mirror and the News of the World, who now works (?) on reality TV shows like Britain's Got Talent and America's Got Talent. In an interview for GQ magazine back in 2008, Piers Morgan cross examined Nick Clegg about his sex life and Mr Clegg foolishly admitted to having had "not more than 30 lovers."

Since I don't read the tabloids or GQ and my reading is selective (in that it tends to steer away from complete drivel) I only heard about this vital nugget of information 2 days ago. However, I doubt that upon hearing this important piece of news I would have changed my vote even though Mr Clegg is obviously an utter scallywag. No doubt they'll be some people who will question his capability to govern on the basis that sleeping with 30 women makes you morally corrupt.

Right. No one mention Kennedy.

Hmm...I wonder what the interpretation of the news would have been if Mr Clegg had said he'd remained a virgin till he married? Probably, he'd be described as either a complete freak or a closet homosexual!

There's nothing like double standards in the press is there?

Anyway, does any sensible person takes notice of this tittle tattle? Unfortunately, some people do. Mostly these folks are the idiots who send money to actors in soap operas whose story lines have them hitting hard times - but the viewer fails to realise the soap opera is actually televised fiction. Doh! The ones who aren't idiots but believe it all are just well.... figure it out.

In my opinion (and yes I have a lot of them) from what I've read and seen of Nick Clegg he seems a decent, honourable man who just so happens to be pretty good looking and attractive to women. Nothing wrong in that and it doesn't mean he's a cad. Besides, I seriously doubt if sleeping with 30 women is a world record for a 43 year old man! Really, couldn't Piers Morgan come up with a more intelligent and seriously minded question?

Why do these sleazy journalists always assume that the public wants to read this kind of utter rubbish? It seems to me that a lot of  publishers are just gearing their magazines to sex, sex, sex. In fact, the other day, stuck without any reading material and with very little choice at the petrol station, I picked up a copy of Cosmopolitan for the first time for ages and I'm afraid, in my view, it was just page to page sleaze. There was nothing substantial to read in it at all!

If sex, sleaze and showbiz is is all our young folks want to read then I find it very worrying indeed. And as for publishers - they need to stop abdicating their responsibilities and produce material which is informative and entertaining at the same time - instead of pages of talk about celebrities and sexual conquests.

In truth, I'm not a prude and I've absolutely nothing against talking or writing about sex; it's a vital, integral part of our lives and can be a source of great joy and happiness, sadness and frustration, as well as humour. There's nothing to be ashamed about writing about sex, either in a fictional or factual way. We write about birth, death and just about everything else - so why should we steer away from something so essential to our physical and mental well being? I think it's the way that sex is portrayed in the media that disturbs me. Of course, I frequently temper my own writing with innuendos and sexual humour for fun but the way sex (and therefore love) is consistently cheapened in the media with this obsession with sleaze is getting extremely irksome; I just wish they'd give our young people something decent and intelligent to read instead of concentrating their minds on tiresome soap operas, overrated celebrities and sleazy sex.

I guess there's a bit of investigative journalist in me - so when I come across anything that stirs my interest, I do more research. I found the clip below on You Tube of  Nick Clegg being heckled about this incident at the House of Commons.




Hmm..doesn't The Speaker handle the event well? Somebody hand him a party hat and some streamers!

Anyway, I'll not deny I laughed out loud at Nick's situation - you've got to see the funny side of life; the smirks on some of his colleague's faces are priceless. Poor Nick gave an honest but foolish answer to a question he should never been asked and as a consequence he's had to suffer a few school boy jokes. I reckon most of those heckling MPs were just jealous of Nick's new found "stud" reputation and, let's face it, there's not many of the old duffers who even with the aphrodisiac of power would attract the attention of 30 bedbugs let alone 30 women!

But seriously, I think Nick Clegg handled himself with dignity, as he has done throughout the whole election. When you see the behaviour of some of our MPs at Westminster, as if they were still in the school dorm, it's no wonder he and others like him want to bring about a new period of responsible politics. I certainly hope he and David Cameron can fulfil their promises.

That's political promises obviously.

What I do when I'm not blogging

Right, the good news is I'm not dead. The bad news is that it took me 13 days, 9 hours, 11 minutes and 56 seconds to saw through my ball and chain with my emery board.

I tell you, that Mr T is a cruel task-master. I've ironed hundreds of shirts, pants, trousers and even the tea towels whilst I've been confined to "The Cooler." Yep, and that wicked Mr T didn't even let me have my baseball and gloves. Huh, what's a gal gotta to do to have some fun?

Well anyway, having finally escaped I thought I'd better do a post as people were sending me emails wondering if I'd overdosed on chocolate and gone to meet my maker. Well to be truthful when I say "people" I mean my mate Huw from Uni. Thanks Huw - as your reward I will keep you on my special friends Christmas card list! ( That's two then - Huw and Willy Wonka - I'm not one for being overly affectionate without good reason.)

Well the truth is, in amidst the ironing I've been looking after Master Ben who has been poorly (but is now on the mend) and trying to catch up with some long overdue reading and writing. Firstly, I re-read Don Juan de la Mancha by the Austrian literary genius Robert Menasse. I've just posted a review on The View From Here if you're interested but if you're easily offended by political incorrectness then I suggest you don't read it.

And don't read it if you're Austrian.

Or German.

However, just to reassure you of my good nature let me say that at no point do I mention The War.



Cos, let's face it - no one does it better than Basil.

I also read 8 Rooms (a collection of short stories) by Legend Press, A Narrow Escape by Faith Martin and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame Smith. (Yep, that was "zombies" - just in case you'd thought I'd gone do-lally) You'll be able to find reviews of 8 Rooms and Pride and Prejudice with Zombies over at The View in the coming weeks. I also worked on a short story for a competition which I thought might be fun to enter. I'm not expecting to have any success as the story was a little naughty but it was an interesting challenge and it's good to keep the old brain cells ticking over. Which I definitely need to do...because having been up in the night with Master Ben one night and unable to get back to sleep I did a Sex ID profile quiz on the BBC which indicated I maybe lacking in the "logic" department. So for your general bewilderment here are my results;

Task 1; Angles. The task was to identify the angle of a line by matching it with its twin; a spatial task designed to look at the way we view space.

I scored 16/20 which was higher than the average for men and women.

My conclusion; the absolute proof that none of the three car crashes I had last year were my fault - Now I just need to convince my insurers.

Task 2; Spot the difference. A test to examine your ability to identify objects which have changed position.

I scored 36% without incorrectly identifying any objects. Average female results were 46% and average male 39%. Oh dear.

My conclusion; It was a fix; I have never incorrectly identified chocolate bars when they've moved them around in the supermarket. However, it might explain why I thought those cars I crashed into last year were really grass verges.

Task 3; Hands; I placed my left thumb on top of my right thumb when I clasped my hands. Apparently this means the left side of my brain is dominant and I excel in visual, spatial and intuitive processes.

My conclusion; When I put my left leg over my right leg it means I need the loo. When I cross my left thumb over my right it means I'm praying the loo is nearby because I've forgotten my spare knickers.

Task 4; Empathsizing. Do you empathsize or sympathize?

I scored 11/20 - slightly higher than both the average male and female.

My conclusion; I'm softie and fall for every sob story in town. However, since I didn't score over 15 it means I am not so soft as to be an ideal carer. This means I can still put Mr T in a home when he goes senile. Excellent.

Task 5; Eyes. A test for your ability to recognise other people's emotions.

I scored 6/10. Average score for men and women was 6.6/10. Therefore, I have a balanced male/female brain.

My conclusion; Hmm... I thought I'd do better at this one. Obviously, I only scored average because some of the models were wearing false eyebrows and noses. Cheats.

Task 6; Finger test; far too tedious to relate. It involved a ruler and some measuring = immense boredom.

Task 7; Faces; what do you find attractive?

Blimey - and I really didn't know this - but I prefer more masculine faces!

My conclusion; everything I said in a previous post about Catherine Zeta Jones was a lie for my own sad amusement. I really do fancy Pierce Brosnan even though he's old enough to be my father. (Well on film anyway -cos if Sean Connery can play Harrison Ford's dad it seem only fair and just that I should be Pierce's offspring - who naturally he should take to bed and read numerous bedtime stories.)

Task 8; 3D shapes; tests the ability to rotate 3D shapes.

I scored 4/10- below average for men and women.

My conclusion; I lost the will to live as soon as I saw this task. It may explain why I failed my maths O level and why I can't stack the saucepans just the way Mr T likes them. Well okay that last point could also because I get a sneaking pleasure out of just shoving them in the cupboard and doing something far more interesting like ironing instead. Ho hum.

Task 9; Words. A test designed to examine your verbal fluency.

The average male scored 11.4 and the average female scored 12.4. I scored 29!!

My conclusion; I talk a lot of bull****.

Task 10; Ultimatum. How do you divide money?

I shared £50 between 2 people for doing the same task 50/50. Amazingly some people didn't. What a load of meanies!

My conclusion; Don't tell my lawyer.

Well there you go, some more insight into my highly complex brain. (Ho hum) Apparently it's a pretty standard female brain. You know I just can't believe that- I like trousers too much. Anyway, the quiz didn't tell me anything about myself I didn't already know. So I guess next time I'll have to hire a psychotherapist; I've always wanted to lie on one of those couches and make up a load of fictitious crap about a previous life. I think it would be fun.. and who knows the therapist could get a whole thesis out of it!

Yep, so these are the things I do when I'm not blogging. And I'd just like to report that that other day I pulled on my jeans which had just been washed and found a £5.00 note in the pocket. And it was still usable! I celebrated - surely this meant the day was looking up! Then I noticed their was a tear in my jeans and my initial delight turned to despair. Anyway, not one to let things get me down I soon convinced myself I'd just look like a hip hop trendy mum. So once again I had a spring in my step and decided to put on some of my new comfy sports socks and what did I find? There was one sock missing from the pack! I ask you... am I the only person who has ever bought a pack of socks that has had one missing??

Ah well...it's the story of my life... as soon as I'm on the up something comes along to ruin it.......