As If You Didn't Know - Worry Where Your News Comes From
Travelling between Birmingham and London a lot at the moment has confirmed a few suspicions of mine that i'd rather weren't true.
It's no secret that cities harbour constantly clashing cultures - Sitting on the No.76 bus watching two vacuous Hoxtonite girls get into a seat that had just been vacated by a bloke who was smoking crack is just another scene you would find hard to make up as you battle through yet another excruciating cross-London journey.
What's slightly more sinister is how news agencies choose to report urban violence. Recently there was a firearm death in the Lozells district of Birmingham. It was well documented in the national press. During the same week there was a drive-by shooting on Stoke Newington's trendy Church Street. It was only 2am, prime chucking out time, still very busy. Last I heard one person was dead, another seriously injured. There was little or no coverage.
So why does Birmingham gangland violence continue to be reported at the expense, in this case, of a London district? Could it be that Lozells is a conveniently ghettoised area where adverse 'publicity' isn't going to affect house prices, leisure industry etc. Reporting on crime there is hardly going to discourage investment, there isn't any.
On the other hand, 'Murder? In Stokey? Where I roll my bugaboo buggy with little Tarquin and Flossy down for a hopi ear candle ceremony? Oh my God!'
Worry what news reaches you.
Get a bike
Get out of the city while you still have a chance!