The Other News Of The World

The revelations about telephone hacking by News International just keep coming out.  More out-of-court settlements have been made today.  We've got to get this sorted out and cleaned up, but I can't help thinking that we need to get our priorities right - so,rather than having a rant, here's a poem.

The Other News Of The World

There’s important things we should think of,

Matters of great weight to be sought out.

But - read all about it – newspaper shock!

The News Of The Screws has been caught out. 

There’s starvation in Africa now:

The rains have failed yet again.

A humanitarian crisis -

Tell that to the newspaper men.

Parts of Japan are contaminated,

And people can no longer live out there,

But the papers are all about “Rebekah”,

Obsessed with her shock of red hair.

Out in space, Atlantis is flying her last,

Returning to earth for the last time.

It’s the end of man’s journeys in space,

Yet we’re occupied with some hacking crime. 

People are dying in hospitals,

And getting abused in their homes.

The homeless wander about the streets,

But the stories are only about phones.

There’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,

And conflicts that are irrational,

But all that we seem to talk of,

Is bloody News International.

In Greece, the people are running riot,

With police, pitched battles they’ve fought.

And we just get to hear about one thing –

Some coppers and hackers they’ve caught.

Europe’s in economic meltdown;

We’re all off to hell in a hand-cart.

You’d think that was quite important,

But instead we have to hear all about “Rupert”.

The Beeb and the press are having a field-day,

We can’t get away from their strident views,

But I’d just like to call for some sanity –

Wake up! – There’s other things in the news!

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2012