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The media merry-go-round – is it reporting or creating?

My subject today springs from the recent media story about the thirty-something male jogger who was allegedly caught on CCTV on Putney Bridge pushing a female pedestrian into the road, whereupon she appeared to have been saved from serious injury, if not death, by the instinctive action of a passing bus driver who swerved to avoid her as she crashed to the ground.

See here for a link to said footage, courtesy of – YOUTUBE

At this point I should perhaps expend (or is it qualify?) that opening paragraph by adding that I’m not sure whether the phrase ‘allegedly caught on CCTV’ is strictly appropriate.

An alternative way of expressing myself would have been to state instead ‘who was caught on CCTV allegedly pushing a female pedestrian into the road’ – for there is no doubt that the CCTV footage I, and presumably everyone else with a computer or smartphone to hand, have seen appears to show it happening: in terms of public comment, however, the convention of adding ‘allegedly’ to the act of ‘pushing’ (as opposed to the ‘being caught on CCTV’) exists to satisfy the perceived or actual niceties of (1) being seen to avoiding stating that the prospective accused in any subsequent court case has actually committed an offence before the crime has actually been proved and/or (2) complying with the protocols of journalistic court reporting.

I’m also moved to add at this point – because it goes to the nub of my wider theme – that in this modern world of social media I suppose it is just technically possible (I say this because I’m someone who knows nothing about modern technology or technicalities) that the aforementioned CCTV footage currently doing the rounds could actually be a cleverly-manufactured ‘fake’ or computer-generated, or spoof, or simply some prank or hack scammed footage created by some genius kid operating from his back bedroom in Penge … because these days you never quite know, do you?

Eric Bellquist - putney bridge joggerThe last factor in my opening statement – or scene-setting – is the fact that this incident actually took place some two months ago and resulted in the weird case of millionaire banker Eric Bellquist, aged 41, being arrested in connection with the alleged offence by the police and taken away from his west London home in handcuffs, before apparently being able to prove that at the time of the incident he was actually in the United State of America.

He has now been released without charge and I believe that the police – although yet to issue an apology – have since confirmed that it was all a misunderstanding and that, prior to his arrest, they had neither checked his whereabouts at the time nor indeed his habitual jogging route.

All kinda strange, don’t you think?

We’ve now reached the stage where the CCTV footage concerned has been seen squillions of times around the world and everyone from Facebookers and Tweeters to WhatsAppers – and indeed not a few journalists – have offered their sixpennyworths to the world.

Here’s an example of the last of these – an article by Holly Baxter, in which she comments upon how social media (and even traditional media outlets) tend to pick up on incidents such as this which then dominate media ‘chatter’ and/or even raise for ‘academic’ discussion issues as to whether, for example, it is a symptom of a new ‘modern syndrome’ or not (in this case ‘jogger rage’), as appears upon the website today of – THE INDEPENDENT

All I wished to register with Rust readers today is that – without regard to ‘jogger rage’ or indeed the Putney Bridge CCTV footage incident referred to – personally I know how some of these people feel.

cyclistsFor as long as I can remember – well, actually it’s been ever since the authorities first began creating cycling lanes at vast expense and inconvenience to proper traffic vehicles; people of all shapes, ages and sizes began donning lycra and hard-helmets and pedalling erratically in every direction all over the roads of Great Britain; and cyclists began to deem themselves outside (and above) the law of the land by failing to stop at red traffic lights and/or (at random) moving from the road in order to cycle along pavements and pedestrian walkways at inconvenience to normal pedestrians – I’ve been suffering from a progressive and irreversible syndrome that I’m going to call ‘cyclist rage’.

It’s neither irrational nor unreasonable. It’s actually just the truth. Cyclists are a total menace and any forms of ‘less than four wheeled’ transport should be automatically banned in the UK anyway. Cyclists and motorcyclists just get in the way and complicate the smooth running of Britain’s roads – and, frankly, anybody who owns a three-wheeled vehicle needs to have their head examined, if not be incarcerated without trial on sight, for the common good.

There, I’ve said it.

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About Lavinia Thompson

A university lecturer for many years, both at home and abroad, Lavinia Thompson retired in 2008 and has since taken up freelance journalism. She is currently studying for a distant learning degree in geo-political science and lives in Norwich with her partner. More Posts