Have your Say!

Media Madness?

It seems to me that the media in this country is totally out of control. With the exception of community-based local papers, newspapers are generally full of sensational, over-exaggerated nonsense!

It is getting harder and harder to see the wood from the trees and spot the real honest and important issues from those fabricated and manipulated by the media.

Of course, it is vital we have freedom of speech and a free press and I am not suggesting we censor or restrict this. No political party would risk offending editors with attempts to control their paper's content, for fear of the bad press or even worse, a lack of publicity.

But I really believe something needs to be done to curb the damaging affects of fiction-based gossip masquerading as serious journalism. On 23rd May I am introducing a bill in the Commons suggesting that a story contains the vital information over whether the person/ ex-boyfriend/former employee etc spilling the beans to the press has been paid, and if so how much. We live in a time when transparency about such things is an important part of helping us make up our own minds about what we read.

What do you think? Would this measure be useful, or are the other ways we can tackle this problem?

Yours,

Gary

posted by Gary Streeter M.P. on Tuesday, May 01, 2007