Integrity

In a recent episode of Extras, Ricky Gervais accidently insulted a boy with autism. The show satirised the media frenzy resulting from his character's error by tracing how the media exaggerated the story until the papers were reporting that he hit the boy and his mother. He was only able to save himself by buying the boy a Nintendo.

Tabloid stuff, you might think. Well, not anymore. Observe the comparable frenzy resulting from Jack Straw's recent ill-judged remark about Muslim women's veils. Newsnight got caught up in it after it emerged that the same day, a woman had her headscarf snatched from her at a bus-stop. Kirsty Wark was clearly personally aggravated by the whole thing. In her interview with two Muslim women, she repeatedly tried to trick them into admitting they were forced to wear veils by their husbands. Later, in the studio, she got her guests ranting about this terrible society where a woman could have her veil snatched off her face. It wasn't a veil, Kirsty! It was a headscarf. Loads of people wear headscarfs! What will we hear tomorrow - that the man at the bus-stop hit her too? I hope he can afford that Nintendo.