Joanna Yeates’s Entertaining Death: Will The Media’s Secret Lover Destroy The Victim?
JOANNA YEATES: Introducing Rebecca Scott, no lover, saliva but not yet a vote for you to say who killed Our Jo…
Other than TV programmes, the only show the nation watches together is death. And like the X the X Factor and soap, death is orchestrated for our entertainment. The blurring of fact and fiction means The Death of Joanna Yeates now features a cameo from former EastEnders star Barbara Windsor.
The tabloids are orchestrating the grief in the case of Joanna Yeates. They have turned her into Our Jo, a totem of mourn porn. (So used to calling her Jo are the dead woman’s pals the media that the Star forgot her real name and called her “JOANNE” on its front page). In place of clues and fact, the media treats readers to visions of pain and suffering of those the woman left behind.
Everyone is reduced to a shallow cartoon character with a role to play. Hell, even some facts are twisted for added sensation. Joanna Yeates’s body was found by Longwood Lane, Failand.. Well, not any longer. The Sun tells us:
Her body was found three miles away in a ditch next to a quarry…
We’ve zoomed in on the mother’s tears. We’ve met the mystic. We’ve met Chris Jefferies, a man presented to slack-jawed readers as a blue haired potential serial killer paedo – he got The Full Murat – and we met Matthew Wood who says he got a text from Miss Yeates. This we are told was her “last text“.
Now, in a story of her “last call” we get to cast aspersions on the character of Joanna Yeates. (Last acts are the tabloids’ filler. See Jade Goody.)
The Sun, which seeks ownership of the story with a reward poster that features a photo of the victim it never knew in life below its own masthead (Joanna Yeates is now longer the star turn in her own story). The Sun boasts:
MORE than 45 MILLION Brits will see a digital poster of The Sun’s £50,000 reward campaign to track down Jo’s killer. The images will appear on 3,000 screens at sites such as garages and GPs’ surgeries.
Today the Sun leads with:
“Jo was no love cheat.”
Rebecca Scott battled her grief to slam cruel gossip, insisting Jo was “besotted” with Greg Reardon.
“Cruel gossip” you might have heard about until it was on the front pages.
The Daily Mirror’s front page has:
“MY BEST MATE JO”
“She didn’t have secret lover”
Rebecca Scott is here to appeal for information. But we just get to gawp at Rebecca Scott:
Dressed in black and clutching a tissue and a cup of coffee, Rebecca said Jo was madly in love with her boyfriend Greg Reardon, 27.
The Sun has:
“We used to go down to Cornwall. We’d spend a couple of weeks down there camping. We both loved being near the sea.”
Finally, anyone looking for a clue can turn to the Bristol Evening Post and learn that saliva has been found on Joanna Yeates’s body.
Dr Carolyn Morton, a principal lecturer in forensic science at UWE, said: “If they do have a saliva test and it is a pure sample from one person it is absolutely brilliant news.”
If?
“They then just have to check who or find out who the owner is.”
So says the expert. Go on:
“The thing that is important to know is whether the sample is strong or weak. I would like to know if it is a pure sample and where on the body it was found.”
So would we.
“Potentially it is very exciting news but without knowing exactly what they found there are still many ifs and buts.”
Exciting?
“If it is true they have found this sample then I’m really pleased but, as always, there can be no guarantees.”
If?
Ladies and gentlemen, The Death of Joanna Yeates – pull up an armchair…
Posted: 13th, January 2011 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
