A reporter is instructed to find dirt on the reverend, and the poor man is tailed. Unfortunately, he leads an entirely blameless life.
"What did he do yesterday?" the editor asks.
"Well, he went shopping. He bought some bread, some fruit and veg and four lamb chops at the butcher's."
"Four lamb chops? Assuming that he buys four lamb chops a week every week over a period of, say, 20 years, that's over a thousand lambs. We've got him! Vicar in sheep massacre!"
Any lingering doubts about what the Cambrian News is up to with its coverage of the election in Ceredigion have been dispelled by this week's front page.
A week ago it was Plaid candidate says incomers are 'Nazis'. He had said no such thing, of course, but as the paper knows, quite a few readers will have glanced at the headline, tutted in disgust and moved on without reading the rest of the story. I met one of them yesterday.
The Labour candidate, Huw Thomas, and several Labour bigwigs were very quick to seize on the headline and call for Mike Parker to be sacked.
A day or so later it emerged that Huw Thomas had suggested throwing Tippex on cars displaying the English flag, made disparaging comments about 'chavs' and women who work in shops, and a good deal more when contributing to an online forum a few years ago.
The story was the lead on that evening's BBC Wales news, just as Mike had found himself in the headlines earlier.
The Huw Thomas story was too late for that week's Cambrian News, and so we have had to wait to find out how the paper would cover the revelations about the Labour candidate. Here's how:
No mention of Labour, and you have to turn to page 15 to find out what all the fuss was about.
The Cambrian News can ill afford to lose even more readers, but it seems determined to do just that.
3 comments:
mind you, I don't suppose reproducing the offending front page doesnt help when everybody had forgotten about it !
I'm not sure what the Cambrian News could have said, an apology before the election would defeat the purpose of the original slander.
Though I shall be very disappointed if Plaid Cymru and Mike Parker do not initiate legal action. Letting the matter drop in the interests of good relations with the media would be a waste of time considering that any relationship that might have existed with the Cambrian News before last week's issue is now broken beyond repair.
Reaction to this local example of gutter journalism should be a trial for the Cambrian News and also a test of whether Plaid Cymru has finally grown a set.
Anon@8.16 I trust readers of this blog to read more than just a headline.
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