The UK media disgusts me

cedars

Hi everyone

We're at least 48 hours into the aftermath of the groundbreaking Candace Conti verdict, and as I wake up this morning I notice the news wires in America are alive with the story. Almost every major news website is running the article. I notice there is also talk of a TV interview being broadcast.

However, when I search UK websites for "candace conti" I get this...

google search

Yes, I realise that Jehovah's Witnesses are a tiny religion, and what interests people in our small community will not necessarily be considered "newsworthy" to the average person on the UK streets. However, this is a significant legal victory (albeit one that still may be subject to appeal) and SHOULD therefore receive coverage! I'm sure that most UK citizens would be at least mildly interested to know that the 'nut-jobs' who wake them up on a Saturday morning have just been successfully sued for allowing one of their own children to fall under the control of a predatory pedophile. However, apparently (after taking a brief glance on Sky News this morning) most Brits will be more interested in the fact that Royal Ascot now has "dress code assistants"

I may well be jumping the gun on this one, and I only HOPE I am. It may well be that, as momentum continues to build in America, the UK media cannot help but get up off their sorry arses and write a few words in acknowledgement of the case. However, even if they finally get round to covering the story, I consider it lazy journalism that it hasn't been picked up already.

I'm sorry to get all worked up over this, but I really thought Cofty's valiant attempts to draw interest would have resulted in at least one article by now. Sadly, it follows a pattern of my own failed attempts to draw attention to various JW-related matters over the past year or so.

Despite regularly emailing scores of UK "religious affairs" journalists in the UK on various matters, I never receive a single reply in acknowledgement. Maybe previous stories that I've emailed them about haven't been as much in the "public interest" as this clearly is, but I genuinely expected Cofty's attempts to finally get through to them (in case I had somehow found myself on "blocked lists" or something similar).

I just think our journalists are bone idle, and not doing their jobs properly if they can't see the significance of a story such as this.

Rant over.

Cedars

wasblind

I agree Cedars

especially scince the WTS boast worldwide under the subheading

HAVE NOT JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES MADE ERROS IN THIER TEACHINGS ???

" Another factor to consider regaurding the ( ERRONEOUS ) teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses is this : Have these truly uplifted people morally ???Are those who adhere to these teachings outstanding in their communities because of their honesty ??? Is their family life beneficially influenced by applying theses teachings ??? Jesus said that his disciples would be readily identified because of having love among themselves, ( John 13:35 ) Is this quality outstanding among Jehovah Witnesses ??? We let that facts speak for themselves."__________Reasoning from the scriptures book page 136,137

The fact spoken : JOHNATHAN KENDRICK

Is it just me, or does anyone else see the contradiction in their own words

( ERRONEUOS )In parenthesis added by Wuz

smiddy

Hi Cedars

I ,and I`m sure many others understand your frustration , to my knowledge here in australia as yet,no media has taken up the story (I could be wrong ) However with the amount of media coverage in the USA I`m sure it`s going to spread in the UK and here in OZ land before long.It was a UK journalist that broke the story about JW`s UN involvement wasn`t it ?and that was massive.Hang in their mate , it`s all happening

A forest fire can spread with a little match discarded beside a roadside and gradually ,eventually it can engulf thousands of acres impacting on many lives.

Maybe, just maybe, this is just that small match.

smiddy

wasblind

Yes cedars should keep his head up,

at least the news is speading fast in a country that has a high level of communication

through all sources

We would be hard pressed if it happened in some remote part of the earth keep hope alive Cedars

MidwichCuckoo

I do understand your frustration, but it may be for the best it didn't make the papers this weekend. Currently, as you mentioned, we have been 'celebrating' the Queen's Jubilee - which I imagine will saturate the majority of the newspapers today (Sunday). I bought a newspaper yesterday, and the first gawd knows how many pages were full of football (soccer) as it's the Euro (in fact, all our TV programmes are being juggled/postponed to accommodate the live matches). I'd hate to think a story like this would get lost amongst what is currently happening. Hopefully this story will hit our papers when readers will give it the attention it deserves rather than it being printed hastily and being overlooked. Having said that, I do think it deserves a mention on the News (TV)

lost1

MC - You are spot on. Papers full of the jubilee/football/Ascot but sure it will happen.

Black Sheep

Give Stephen Bates a heads up.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/stephenbates?INTCMP=SRCH

Chariklo

Hi Cedars,

Don't give up hope. The British media takes a long time to get alerted to an issue. I know this to my cost, as I've been part of a group campaigning on a very different, church-related local matter, which did achieve a great deal of local and regional coverage but completely failed to get taken up nationally, despite the strong support of the local Member of Parliament, and the area BBC and local and regional press.

Paedophiles are a topical issue very much more emotive and of much more general interest. It seems to me that the problem here is that this is a United States matter, and, as others have pointed out, this particular summer is jam-packed with news stories of very great public interest. The Diamond Jubilee, the Euro and Greece crisis, Euro 2012 (football to the rest of the world), tennis...Wimbledon is almost here...and very soon after that the Olympics and all that build-up: the Leveson Inquiry into Rupert Murdoch, the Arab Spring and most recently the Egyptian elections, the 30th anniversary of the liberation of the Falkland Islands, and always, every day, disasters, accidents, and other individual events stemming from simmering issues.

Child abuse is one of those simmering issues. Child abuse by elements of a religious institution makes it an even more interesting issue. However, from a British point of view it hasn't yet been perceived by the Press as worthy of superseding all the others demanding attention. I can think of many occasions when the Americans I know and even count as friends on the web are all talking of something about which I've heard nothing.

JW's are uppermost in the minds of those here, so to many forum members it may seem like abominable negligence. I don't think it will make it as a big news story here unless it gains national relevance. Emphasising, as you have in your excellent article, that there is huge fault in the fundamental attitude of the Watchtower instructions to elders and regional offices may help. I'm not sure it will be enough, though.

I've had it on very good authority that there are Jehovah's Witnesses, possibly even only one or two, at a very senior level in the BBC programming or programming-planning department. It was told me with pride by someone very well-connected with the higher echelons of society and the media. I was in fact given the position held, but unfortunately it was in passing and I didn't ask close questions; it might even have been to do with news. It was BBC1 or 2.

I wonder if anyone knows any more about this?

If that's true, then it might account for some of the difficulty in getting a news story off the ground. But maybe emphasising the worldwide nature of the WT, its uniformity everywhere (much more than, say, than in the Catholic Church) and correlating it with whatever records of JW child abuse in the UK you have at your fingertips might be a way forward.

Cedars, I'll PM you a bit later on, please watch out for it.

cantleave

I have emailed Stephen Bates - no response as yet!

Mickey mouse

Give it a few days, I'm sure they will catch on after the weekend.

The UK media disgusts me

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