Tabloid journalism

I've just finished reading "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco. It is the one major novel by Eco that I had not read, and I was desperately trying to shed the memory of the movie (and especially Sean Connery playing a Geordie in a Scottish accent) so that I could come to the novel afresh.

As a professor of semiotics, Eco is an expert in meaning and creating (mis)understanding with excellent use of language to confuse, obscure and entertain.

I think I missed much of the skill as the excessive use of Latin somewhat hindered my understanding. Not even our teacher, Cicero, was able to (metaphorically) beat the language into my head at school.

However, the exquisite use of language to hide the truth is something that politicians tend to be well versed in.

The tabloids lied to the girls. Is anyone surprised? The families would have been well advised to stay quiet and ignore the mistakes, rather than stoking the flames again, as I think that this will simply give the story "legs".

But why was the location misreported, and in such a way as to make it easily deniable? Simple; it was to hide the role of the source and start people looking in the wrong direction. The fact that the apology didn't deal with this will just cause more questions to be asked, rather than closing the matter off.

So why am I bothered? Self-interest. I became "collateral damage" thanks to this individual leaking the story, and I don't like that in the slightest.

Story closed, until I get an opportunity to "restore the balance".