Many thanks to the Bristol Post for informing us that “killer Shauna Hoare” is “having the time of her life” in prison, having started an affair with a fellow prisoner. The 21-year-old who was found guilty of the manslaughter of Becky Watts, says the Post, has a “prison girlfriend who protects her at any cost”. The source who remains anonymous, of course, is an ex inmate at Bronzefield women’s prison. The Post does not make it clear whether their source obtained this information first hand or through another source, but it doesn’t matter. Not to them, anyway.
I have little or no time for the Bristol Post which seems to be plunging more and more downmarket in order to attract more readers. If that is the case, they are obviously not very fussy who they attract because the rest of the “story” is even worse.
If the murder of Becky Watts and the subsequent lengthy drawn-out trial was not enough for the poor family to bear, the Post doesn’t just leave it here. By claiming that Hoare is having a great time as punishment for wrecking numerous lives, on the basis of what appears to be hearsay and, dare I call it tittle-tattle, they then remind us about Hoare’s sexual preferences, all of which was brought out at the trial. Nonetheless, the Post, desperately space-filling, feels the need to pad out their lurid article with specific detail.
Much water has gone under the bridge since the words “The paper all Bristol asked for and helped to create” first appeared on its front pages. I remember when the paper was viewed as the place to go for news, with three daily editions, and a host of high quality journalists. There remain good journalists at the Post but not many of them and I fear they may have been joined by journalists who have grown up with a rather different set of values from which the paper used to hold.
Who, I wonder, is remotely interested in reading explicit sexual content about a convicted killer who is loathed by the public in general and a broken family in particular? What was the journalist thinking about when s/he composed the piece? I repeat: it’s already been placed in the public arena. Why repeat it, other for some bizarre idea of titillation?
I’m more used to reading, or rather in my case avoiding, this type of rubbish in the downmarket national red tops. I never once thought its like would appear in “the paper all Bristol asked for and helped create” and can only conclude that it has now given up on proper news, in favour of tawdry tales, in order to appeal to a different audience which, I can assure you will not include me.
