What media panics can lead to

Do you remember a few months ago, the dreadful case of the two babies who were mauled by the urban fox in London?

Do you also remember that despite the fact that these cases are extremely rare, the press went into panic mode about urban foxes with TV specials about them and far more press coverage than this "problem" actually warranted, making it seem like a huge and widespread issue.

Well, there is another horrible story today in the Evening Standard. Apparently a bunch of men have taken it upon themselves to lure an urban fox into a trap using drugged bait and then beaten it to death. They have filmed themselves doing this and posted it on Facebook. They claim they are doing this to rid their neighbourhood of this "pest".

I suspect there is a link between the actions of these thugs and the disproportionate media coverage that the original case garnered. OK, people like this are probably just looking for an excuse and they may have found another pretext for this sort of behaviour but I still think the media need to be more responsible and not blow situations like the fox attack out of all proportion.

It's a nasty example of what whipped up hysteria can contribute to.

H/T to James Graham on Twitter for alerting me to the story.

UPDATE 07/08/2010: It turns out that the story was an elaborate hoax by professional film-makers.

Independent Facebook group to get Lib Dems into office

I have had my attention drawn to a Facebook group today entitled: "We got Rage Against the Machine to #1, we can get the Lib Dems into office!"

It was founded by someone who is not even a party member but who just seems to be sick of the same old politics from the two main parties and is questioning if the only reason the Lib Dems have not been in office for so many years is because people think they won't win then perhaps a group like this could help stop this self fulfilling prophecy from occurring. Here's the info from the main page:

We got Rage Against the Machine to #1, we can get the Lib Dems into office!

This time the cause is even greater!

No matter who we vote for, the government always gets in - for Britain's sake let's at least give the underdog party a proper crack of the whip...

If you say you won't vote Lib Dem because they never get in (something I've heard my entire life!) then let's do it for once!

If you want more info on what the Lib Dems are about, have look at this policy guide: http://tinyurl.com/yhhx3j2

Founded 30/03/2010

The group has been around for 2 weeks and already has over 13,000 members. It will be interesting to see how this goes and whether its rapid growth garners wider media coverage.

Tom Brake MP is an unperson

Just seen on Lib Dem Voice that Tom Brake MP has had his Facebook account disabled just hours after he used it to organise a large public display in his constituency:

Tom, who last year became one of the first MPs in Britain to offer his constituents regular online advice surgeries, is widely noted in the media for his use of the internet to engage with the public.

Hundreds of people gathered last night in Wallington town centre to protest against the axing of the N213 night bus service. They were mobilised largely through the Save the N213 Facebook group which had grown to over 2,000 members – Tom Brake was one of the administrators.

This morning he found that his account had been disabled and that he had been removed as admin from several groups, including “Save the N213.”

I hope this turns out to just be an administrative cock-up on Facebook's part. It does however demonstrate the risk of public officials using mechanisms that are ultimately owned and mediated by private companies. As Tom himself says:

Much of my casework now comes through Facebook – the bizarre and heavy-handed decision to disable my account only hours after a protest organised through the social-networking site, severely disadvantages my constituents who rely on the net to contact me.

However "nice" companies like Facebook, Google (don't be evil) etc. might seem, they are ultimately there to try and make money and who knows what goes on behind the scenes in these organisations. They are not accountable to us.

It is worth bearing this in mind I think.

UPDATE: Apparently Tom's account was automatically disabled due to heavy traffic (possibly caused by interest in the event he had orgainsed) and Facebook are now working on reinstating his account. I still think the points I made are valid though.