Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

Myra

Who would be crass and evil enough to exploit the image of Myra Hindley? Who could do such a thing? Who would keep that face in the public gaze to remind everyone of the horrific crimes?

Oh, I see. Page one of seven, mind.

Yes, it's Myra Hindley, back in the news, as her face - or a picture of her face briefly seen in a view of the Saatchi Gallery (or is it Tate? The Mail says Tate; I thought Saatchi) from years ago in some stock footage - was used in a video promoting London in Beijing. Anyway, you know we can rely on the Mail for calm, rational, insightful coverage of this:

Fury as image of Myra Hindley appears in 'Best of British' film at 2012 Olympics party

Quite. I've blogged before about how the Mail likes to alchemise 'fury' from nowhere. But, as ever, I'm left sprinkled with stardust from the brilliant, almost poetic, use of language by the Mail subs. Jesus Christ, if they were put to work for the forces of good they'd be bloody brilliant; imagine that. But no, their day job consists of trying to make things sound true that aren't so that some grumpy housewife in Cheam will shake her head and tut: in this case, try and make it sound as if Myra Hindley was depicted as being 'best of British', even though that wasn't it at all, even though it was just a second-long shot of a painting of her as part of a film about art in London.

The video fleetingly featured a notorious painting of the Moors murderer by artist Marcus Harvey, which shows her face made up of thousands of children's handprints

Oh noes! Luckily enough the Mail print a giant picture of the hideously twisted artwork, just so you can see how bad it is. I mean obviously, anyone else catching a glimpse of it would be instantly corrupted into burying a couple of kids under Saddleworth Moor; but Mail readers can take it. Ah come on now, Vowl, you're saying to yourselves, it's not as if the Mail are saying that a single glimpse of the painting - which even the Mail themselves say is 'fleeting' would be a terrible thing, are they? Well, you say that, but...

But TV coverage meant millions of TV viewers will also have glimpsed the image.

You mean to tell me that millions of people across the world will have seen a picture of a murderer they've never heard of? Just imagine the damage that's done to the babies around the world! Why weren't they warned? Oh, the humanity. Imagine if Madrid had won the Olympic Games and an image of Guernica had been beamed across the world into unsuspecting living rooms... well there'd have been thousands dead by the end of the day. Wouldn't there? Am I missing the point here? I may or may not think this painting is a crock of shit, or most of the stuff in the Saatchi or the Tate, but that's largely immaterial: we all know art is meant to be challenging. A painting of someone's face - even a notorious criminal - is not offensive in itself. Is it? Or maybe it is?

Justin at Chicken Yoghurt takes a different approach:

Like Boris Johnson and Downing Street, I too am ‘deeply disturbed’ that a picture of a murderer has been used to promote the 2012 Olympics.
I ask you, who the Hell thought it would be a good idea to include Tony Blair in there?

Heh. I hadn't blogged on this subject this morning as I wanted to enjoy a day's worth of comments - a bumper bank holiday edition, to boot - from the finest minds on teh internet. Here they come:

Message is Britain is a violent society so in 2012 wear your stab-proof vests.
- Roger Davies, Aberdovey, 25/8/2008 8:53

What? More like "don't believe a nice lady who says she's come to take you away from that funny-looking bloke", surely?

i wonder who will be put on display next???????????
- chris, scotland, 25/8/2008 9:18

I wonder, Chris! I wonder! (What the fuck?)

It just proves that the pedo network is alive and strong, their two fingers up at the rest of us.
- Common Sense, London, England, 25/8/2008 9:20

Someone once said that common sense must be the most abundant commodity in the world, because every human being believes that they've got it in spades. Ironically, the kind of person who calls himself 'Common Sense' is, in fact, in need of it the most.

Get ready for the 'dopes' Olympics - and I don't mean the track atheletes. We'll have the gravy train as well as the idiocy marketing and promotions where people should know better, but clearly do not. Obviously British history should start with Jack The Ripper according to these twits.
- Freddie, Dorset, UK, 25/8/2008 9:38

What? I think I'm beginning to see why the Mail used to filter its comments so heavily - not just to remove those inconveniently oppositional opinions, but also to stop the world from thinking its readers were a bunch of nonsensical nitwits.

Disgraceful!! Its sending a message 'welcome murders of children to Britain, come here, murder and torture, get your portrait painted by a pervert and shown all over the world'
- sue, saumur, 25/8/2008 9:53

She's right. That's the message it's sending out, no question.

Sums the UK up nicely doesn't it. They should have also shown a picture of the sold off sport's pitche's around our schools, where New Labour taught our future sporting Star's that life is too P C to possibly want to compete to win!
- Aj, UK, 25/8/2008 10:12

AJ makes a good point about declining standards in education for our sporting "star's".

Does anyone think that an excellent olympic performance is going to stop the hate-filled lefties from sabotaging Britain?
- Bill, Newcastle, 25/8/2008 10:29

Oh, certainly not Bill. The hate-filled lefties would sabotage Britain no matter how many gold medals Team GB got at the Olympics. That just shows how evil they are.

Another fine example of incompatance and gross stupidity,whats the message ? come and visit britain home of child murders ? why not use not use GARY CLITTERSS image ?
promerbly because the immature person response does not know what Hindley was and only knows a portrait.
- MR S SWIFT, BARNSLEY SOUTH YORKSHIRE, 25/8/2008 11:01

CAPS LOCK! But yes, Swifty, (can I call you Swifty?) you're right. I'm sure the artist didn't know who Hindley was, but by some convenient coincidence decided to make the picture out of child-sized handprints.

Typical
- ruby cooper, nice and london, 25/8/2008 11:02

Say what you like, but Ruby's got a point.

This really is where socialist political correctness leads. How on earth did a picture of a child murderer end up on display in an art gallery, one I might add made up of the handprints of children. What is the artist trying to say *children like this nice woman*? It's obscene, like most political correctness.
And now, we have the message *Visit London and see our nice child murderers, they're not so bad really, even our children like them*
The amoral social environment created by this useless New Labour project has enabled this to happen. It just never occurred to anyone that this is wrong. Right and wrong just don't exist anymore. Shame on all of them.
- D, London UK, 25/8/2008 13:46

Yes D, I think that's exactly the message that VisitLondon were trying to put out. Curse them!

Who ever did this picture in the first place must be have a twisted sense of justice a picture with myra hindley with a noose round her neck would have been better then we could have show everbody what should happen to child murders , shame on any gallery that displays it ,as for the promotional video typical usless organisation
- paddy arnold, royton, 25/8/2008 14:18

Picture of killer = wrong. Picture of killer being killed = right. Well yes, that flows quite logically, Paddy.

I don't know what it is about Hindley. I think people need that female hate figure; that Lady Macbeth. It's a real taboo that the supposedly nurturing sex should be able to kill at all, let alone be sadistic and torture children, as she did. I just find the reaction to this painting, which is years old anyway, a touch on the hysterical side. Yes, it's a picture of Hindley, but it's there on the page in front of you, an image that has been seen countless times before, used to sell newspaper after newspaper after newspaper - no-one seems to be telling the Mail to remove it from their pages; no-one appears to have been offended by the sight of it, rather by the concept of it. And I guess that's fair enough. But regardless of the merits of this particular piece, I'd rather live in a country where art is allowed to be controversial rather than one where it wasn't.

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