The hype behind the headlines
Kilroy controversy
The row over Robert Kilroy-Silk's comments proves how potentially dangerous an attention grabbing headline can be. Through what Kilroy claims was his secretary's mistake, the article which appeared in the Sunday Express on January 4 had already been featured once before in the paper, last April.
Apparently, no-one then objected to his sweeping characterisation of nearly 200 million people as "suicide bombers, limb-amputators, women repressors". More likely, no-one read it. Cryptically and clunkily entitled "Us loathsome? Shame on them!", it was largely ignored in the media storm over the Iraq war. Last week, under the far more eye-catching "We owe Arabs nothing", it attracted the scrutiny it deserved.
Incidentally, Kilroy chose to show his most progressive side in Sunday's column. The other piece of comment offered with his non-mea culpa was on the discovering that "high heeled shoes are good for women." Kilroy, like any sensitive and respectful man, opined: "Isn't this great news? It's brilliant, don't you think? It means that women should wear stilettos all the time. They should totter in them at work, to the shops, in the garden, on the beach, the kitchen - even the bedroom."
Further proof of Kilroy's liberal views came from his unfortunate secretary, Hilary Hunter, who said gallantly, "Robert is very fair-minded; and on his show he just lets everybody have their say. He is not a racist at all - he employs a black driver." Well, if he's that public-spirited, let's give him an OBE.
Mad Salmon Disease
"Health tourist salmon clog up our NHS!" (Huh? - Ed) screamed the Daily Mail this week. Alright, it didn't, but it really went to town on the story that Scottish farmed salmon might contain carcinogenic chemicals. The Mail is well known for loving a good health scare, and it devoted an entire front page to the allegations. The broadsheets (presumably read by more habitual salmon-eaters than the tabloids) were interested, but showed a remarkably restrained attitude to the crisis. I think it's just cancer-cause fatigue... underarm deodorants, hair dye, mobile phones, HRT and even sterilised water have all been fingered as cancer culprits recently. If you want a fright, type "causes cancer" into Google. You'll find out that your chances of survival in the modern world are limited by nearly every substance you come into contact with.
15th Jan 2004