Monday 19 February 2007

Vicky For Vendetta - 19th February

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2007080148,00.html

"While I’ve criticised her for not sorting herself out after dumping loser Kevin Federline, no one could feel anything but sympathy for this poor young girl who is obviously suffering from a breakdown. Now she wishes everyone — the fans, the media, her advisers — would just leave her alone."

Oh here we go - one of Vicky's trademark 180s! A sudden outpouring of sympathy from a journalist who has been doggedly criticising Britney at every turn, no matter what she does for months on end now.

Let's have a look. "
With a diet like that I doubt she is going to shift much." "Pinocchio of Pop" "...sweaty, puffy face..." "Britney’s nails are completely chewed down to the quick – and her nail varnish is flaking off. Very unnattractive." (this in an article entitled "PRIORITIES?" and claiming Britney prefers a dog to her son).

And let's not forget the article which starts "Meet Britney's chav-a-likes. With Brit's transformation from beauty to chav complete, meet her pikey role models." Britney is then described as "gormless", compared to Waynetta Slob with "One of the above is a bawdy, grotesque caricature who smokes like a chimney, gives her offspring ludicrous names and despises the lout she married. The other's played by Kathy Burke." and implies she is a "fat slag". This article has since been removed from The Sun's website, no doubt due to the fact that it was published under the Bizarre banner on the day the paper made a song and dance about how horrendous it is in this day and age to use words such as, um, "chav" and "pikey".

In fact out of the 43 editions of Bizarre there have been this year, guess how many times Britney has been mentioned? Yep - 43.

"Ever since she burst on to the pop scene at 15 wearing the provocative school uniform outfit with pigtails in Hit Me Baby (One More Time) she’s been screaming: Look At Me."

Two things here. Firstly, she was 16 when her first single was released (in fact two months shy of 17). Secondly, the song is called "...Baby One More Time". Have a look at the cover.

6 comments:

James said...

It's at times like this that I have to salute your dedication to the cause. If Britney's current sojourn in the world of Going-Completely-Tonto IS partly caused by the media's endless barrage of freak-pointing, Newton is clearly one of the more obsessed pointers - A fact that this blog neatly shows. For her to be able to spin a hate-filled article on a woman based on a photo of some chipped nail-varnish sums it up.

I love the way she tries to dodge any blame by opening with the line "While I’ve criticised her for not sorting herself out..." It's like someone starting a sentence with "I'm not racist, but..." Reminds me of the old Polish proverb "In an avalanche, no one snowflake feels responsibility"

N.B. For the record, I'm not a Britney fan myself. She hasn't made a decent record since 'Baby One More Time' in my opinion. However, I am just about managing to keep this from developing into a full-blown hate campaign conducted in a daily tabloid.

Darwin said...

Thanks for your comments, james. In the "chipped nail varnish" incident, it wasn't even just that comment that was ridiculous. The article was based around Britney apparently taking her dog to buy a new coat and putting her boy onto her "minder" (which turned out to be her manager). As I said at the time, even those simple facts were wrong - Britney went to the pet shop to BUY the dog - the photos were of her leaving with it.

I am also aware of the irony of starting and working on a blog dedicated to criticising the actions of one person, and then pulling them up when they spend their time doing the same... ;O)

Dx

James said...

Heheh! Funny you should say that - For a split-second as I typed my post, the thought crossed my mind "Ah, hang on... What if this is all a clever trap designed to make us criticise one media figure for criticising another media figure, thus proving us to be hypocrites?"

But then I remembered that, unlike Newton's anti-Britney campaign, this blog is based on actual facts and evidence documenting one woman's persistant failure to do her job. Whereas Britney's supposed misdemeanours (such as, erm, looking a bit untidy) are captured off-guard by paparazzi on the street, Newton's are voluntarily typed up, submitted and published every morning in a national newspaper. My guilty feelings vanished instantly...

Ever thought of compiling a searchable online database made up entirely of Newton's duff 'facts'? No reason, other than it'd be fun to call it 'Vickipedia' ;)

Darwin said...

Well this is where occasionally I have been asked to justify the reasoning behind this blog - and it's as you say - it's a failure to do a job. I really try not to make this personal (aside from the odd goth comment, maybe) and stick to contradictions and mistakes where evidence is available to prove them or at least strongly suggest something is amiss.

I do think it is wrong, on principle, that someone who reaches such a large audience frequently makes so many mistakes. And as annoying as it may be, Vicky does reach a LARGE audience - several million in print, several more million online. This site has had over 10,000 hits in 2 months, so it's small dent in the News Coroporation armour, but the word is spreading. Another mention in yesterday's Independent didn't hurt either...

Dx

Bryan said...

Ultimately, the blog’s role is to hold a columnist to account.
Are there more important targets? Probably, but its worth remembering that they are perhaps the most read pages in the most read paper.
The fact that they (it’s a team effort after all) can’t be bothered to check a song title or how long a song stayed at number 1 suggests that they knock out copy without a second thought. This does mean that they can 180º which is amusing to anyone paying the slightest attention.
Regarding the Britney story; it’s really as if they believe Britney will read it.

Daysleeper said...

She really makes me sick. How does she get away with this? Aside from the fact she is a completely incompetent journalist, she really does not give a shit about the sisterhood huh? She seems to love sticking the boot into women more than she does men. I hope she gets run over.