March 17, 2005
Sir Bob and The Sun
Sir Bob Geldof has been having a rant at the UK papers over their coverage of Ethiopia and Africa. According to the Guardian's media section, he used the British Press Awards to lay into the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror and the Independent.
His only words of praise were for The Sun - Britain's best-selling daily tabloid newspaper famed for its pictures of topless models on page three and its alarmist coverage of the country's immigration "crisis". (Its current anti-gipsy campaign also makes interesting reading.)
According to the Guardian:
Geldof made his remarks at the British Press Awards after being invited to take to the stage by the Sun's associate editor, Dominic Mohan, and reporter Oliver Harvey, who had just been given the Hugh Cudlipp award for their Band Aid campaign for Africa...Geldof went on to describe how Sun reporter Harvey had tracked down 1984 Ethiopian famine survivor Birhan Woldu and introduced her to an unsuspecting Tony Blair.
This type of journalism, he said, can help save a continent that is in danger of sinking into oblivion, he said, adding that everyone in the room had a duty to see that the G8 summit in July made a difference to Africa.
I love the bit about The Sun tracking down famine survivor Birhan Woldu. It creates an image of Wapping hacks trekking through Tigray, knocking on the door of every tukul they pass to find their woman. What actually happened was they phoned a stringer over here who phoned up a Leicester-based charity called A-Cet. A-Cet has been supporting Birhan's education ever since she sponsored by Brian Stewart, the Canadian camera man who filmed her during the 1984 famine.
By the time The Sun "tracked her down" she had already appeared in a string of follow-up TV documentaries in 1988, 1995, 2003 and 2004 as well as a number of other newspaper articles.
Here is the AP's version of Birhan's admittedly amazing story.
Posted by aheavens at March 17, 2005 3:16 AM