Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

A plague of fucking vultures

The front page of the Daily Star is never a place you go to for j0urnalism, or quality news, or, well, anything other than a celebrity in their pants really. But today's edition marks out a truly horrible new low.

Have a good look. This is the way it's going. A picture of someone on a hospital bed, covered in bruises. Unconscious. And with a fucking great camera shoved in his face.

THIS is Paul Gascoigne lying unconscious in his hospital bed after the car crash that nearly killed him.

The picture shows how the football legend’s face took the brunt of the smash that left him lying in the road choking on his own blood.

Well, thank goodness we have the photo to show us that his face took the brunt of the smash. We'd never have known otherwise, would we? There is an attempt at some justification underneath the photo, which goes like this:

The former footballer, who witnesses said was not wearing a seatbelt, was given emergency treat-ment by para-medics before he was rushed to Newcastle General Hospital, where this picture was taken by a close pal.

Friends said he wanted it published to warn others of the dangers of accepting lifts from possible drink-drivers.

Well, seeing as Gascoigne is in no fit state to answer back, I guess we'll have to take that on trust, won't we? There's a chance that he did authorise the photo, of course, in order to make a little bit of money, or to publicise the dangers of drink-driving, perhaps. Even then, the treatment by the paper is deeply unpleasant. The way the Star trumpets its EXCLUSIVE photo of a former footballer's smashed-up face: THE FIRST PHOTO, as if there's been a race to stuff a camera in the face of an accident victim. And maybe there has been, for all we know.

One pal said last night: “This picture shows just how lucky he is to be alive.

“Every time he looks at it he must count his blessings. He is a very lucky man.”

Well, maybe not that lucky, eh. Maybe he'd rather not have nearly choked to death on his own blood and been left scarred for life by a car crash. But this is the world of tabloids, where the bloody face of an accident victim is something to shout about, and something to be proud of having first.

This, I'm afraid, is the way it's going. It was Richard Desmond's OK! magazine which published a photo of Michael Jackson as he lay dying - or already dead - round about this time last year. Photos of Gary Coleman in a coma, near death, were recently sold for $10,000. It's no accident that the Star shoved the word DEATH so prominently in the headline, next to a photo of an unconscious person that at first glance looks like he might even be dead. This is where we're headed.

Paul Gascoigne has, of course, been the victim of the tabloid vultures before. The Sun charmingly roared about his SUICIDE BID back in 2008. And if you think it's just the US media who swarm around the dead, soon-to-be-dead or possibly-already-dead, then don't forget the Daily Mail calling Carol Barnes a lonely drunk as she neared her final days; speculating about the private life of Michael Todd just after his body had been found; or raced to dump sleaze on MP Piers Merchant just hours after death; not to mention nasty speculation about missing TV presenter Mark Speight, while he was, as it turned out, contemplating suicide; or speculating once again on the motives behind a 'suicide bid' from model Noemie Lenoir

Maybe Gazza did consent to his photo appearing in the paper; maybe he just wanted the cash. Maybe he didn't have anything to do with it. Whatever the truth is, it's still pretty low to splash his bloodied face all over the front page and jump up and down about the fact you've got the exclusive, then go big on the word DEATH to try and make it even more shocking. You just know with Gascoigne that the vultures are circling, and they have been for some time. It's not pretty. And anyone who buys that paper is feeding it.

Digital Spy ran a story about the Coleman death photos, in which one of those highly convenient 'sources' is quoted as saying:

"They are going to sell a crazy amount of magazines," a source said.

"Yes, it's an ugly decision to run pictures of a man in his hospital bed minutes before he died, but dead celebrities sell."

An ugly decision - but dead celebrities sell. Living ones do too, of course, but we're all just waiting for the next Diana. Or the next big celebrity death. And if there are photos of them on their deathbed, then what? Don't think that the press in this country will be above printing them. They're certainly not above lurid and deeply intrusive speculation, which is if anything even more hurtful to the families than the photos.

Essentially, they're just a plague of fucking vultures. And they're not going to stop if, as is claimed, 'dead celebrities sell'.

Thanks to Tom for the tipoff.

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