Beyer takes a stab at the cause of knife crime
The news that knife attacks in the UK had risen by 73% was welcomed by “Massah” John Beyer of Mediawatch-UK. He leapt at the opportunity, in a letter to The Times, to claim that the figures validated his deeply-held beliefs.
Unfortunately for him, the report from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College London made no mention of Beyer’s central claim – that TV, film and computer games “validate” the use of knives to a significant extent. The reason it wasn’t mentioned is no doubt because of the lack of evidence that the claim is true. Not that this lack of evidence has ever concerned the chubby smut-campaigner, who has never shown any sign of understanding what the word “evidence” actually means.
Year after year, Beyer and his gang of biddies watch endless hours of TV, pen and paper in hand, monitoring every “fuck”, “shit”, shot, and stab so that they can publish their findings and display them as “evidence” that sex and violence on TV leads to sex and violence in reality. It’s true. We’re not joking. That’s what they do.
From the letter:
If fictional macho heroes normalise the use of knives, as our monitoring of films on television for the past 15 years shows, should we be surprised if real life is reflecting what is commonly portrayed on the screen?
Notice the leap? Beyer doesn’t.
Not only does he fail to note how many of the fictionalised incidents are actually glamorised by being performed by “macho heroes” – he fails demonstrate a causal link between these depictions and real world violence. The confusion of correlation and cause is something Beyer has never managed to come to terms with – and yet he still states, with supreme confidence:
One thing is certain: a coherent future strategy in tackling knife crime must embrace the portrayal of fictional violence in our entertainment.
I’m writing to BBC Drama to ask if they’ll do a TV movie/play about attacks on clean-up-TV campaigners, in the hope that Massah, so convinced that life will imitate art, will remain at home and cease his campaigning activities forthwith, for fear of his life. Tee-hee.
If Beyer’ claim were true, and him and his group really do watch all these programs, mediawatch-uk would be the most feared criminal gang in the entire world, having been so corupted by all those violent programs.
Nah, there all stuck indoors buggering each other as they become corrupted by gay porn 😉
If he doesn’t like “macho heroes” using blades, then I presume he’d be fine with a “wimpy” anti-hero giving someone a sneaky chibbing?
Mediawatch uk think any portrayal of knife use on TV is glamourisation. If someone made a film about the murder of Stephen Lawrence would that be glamourisation?
Andy Gilmour sez: “If he doesn’t like “macho heroes†using blades, then I presume he’d be fine with a “wimpy†anti-hero giving someone a sneaky chibbing?”
Nah, he’d probably assume the ‘wimpy’ character was gay.
I wish the government would write back to him and say they’ll include this in a coherent policy package once he’s able to package a coherent argument about policy.