Mainstream Media Blames PS3 For Mugging - Non-Shocker
Desperate attempt by Sun to drop police, store and console in the mire.
Here's the mainstream press equation: Console launch + mugging = Readers. The first story linking a UK PS3 to street crime is with us. Desperate for some kind of videogames tie-in before laying into the England football manager tomorrow, News International’s mighty organ, The Sun takes up half of today’s page 18 with a headline screaming: ‘Grand Theft Console’, its sub-headline clarifies the story as follows: ‘First fans to get PS3 Robbed’.
What follows is a sad tale of how two shoppers were mugged of their new PS3s and games after leaving GAME in Walthamstow’s Selbourne shopping centre around midnight on the launch day (March 23rd).
The first victim comments, “There was no security and the police hadn’t been told about the shop opening late. I ended up in hospital but Sony and Game didn’t want to know. They’ve treated me like a mug.”
We spoke to a, understandably frustrated, GAME representative this morning who explained to us, “There were two security guards in the centre. Without the centre knowing we were opening, we wouldn’t have been able to open anyway.”
Staggeringly, a police spokesman told Mr Murdoch's organ, “If you are walking along the early hours of the morning carrying a plastic bag with a computer shop emblazoned on it, it’s an advert to say ‘come on and rob me’”.
So, now you know. It appears that there is now a curfew in place for people carrying plastic bags with computer shop’s names on them – at least if you live in parts of London.
It’s strange that The Sun didn’t bother leading with this shocking revelation, instead leading on a spurious console connection.
Of course, we have contacted Walthamstow police this morning, who passed us on to the local area press officer – who wasn'’t in. We await a call-back to tell us whether the quote in the Current Bun was accurate. If it was, then the mainstream media should be all over the fact that safety on the streets of the UK's capital has degraded to such an extent that the police force has openly given up the fight, and admitted that simply carrying a plastic bag with a brand name on is an excuse for robbery.
SPOnG wonders what other kinds of plastic shopping bag, timing and location demand, “Come and mug me!” Would, for example, a Harrods’ bag at 7:35 on a Tuesday night in Knightsbridge also be met with the same kind of police statement? Give us your bag, times and locations for curfew ideas in the Forum.
Do you live in Walthamstow? Did you go to the GAME midnight launch? Email us at feedback@spong.com with the real story. In fact, if you went to any of the PS3, Wii, World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade midnight launches, email us and tell us how you were mugged for your plastic bag... or were not!
What follows is a sad tale of how two shoppers were mugged of their new PS3s and games after leaving GAME in Walthamstow’s Selbourne shopping centre around midnight on the launch day (March 23rd).
The first victim comments, “There was no security and the police hadn’t been told about the shop opening late. I ended up in hospital but Sony and Game didn’t want to know. They’ve treated me like a mug.”
We spoke to a, understandably frustrated, GAME representative this morning who explained to us, “There were two security guards in the centre. Without the centre knowing we were opening, we wouldn’t have been able to open anyway.”
Staggeringly, a police spokesman told Mr Murdoch's organ, “If you are walking along the early hours of the morning carrying a plastic bag with a computer shop emblazoned on it, it’s an advert to say ‘come on and rob me’”.
So, now you know. It appears that there is now a curfew in place for people carrying plastic bags with computer shop’s names on them – at least if you live in parts of London.
It’s strange that The Sun didn’t bother leading with this shocking revelation, instead leading on a spurious console connection.
Of course, we have contacted Walthamstow police this morning, who passed us on to the local area press officer – who wasn'’t in. We await a call-back to tell us whether the quote in the Current Bun was accurate. If it was, then the mainstream media should be all over the fact that safety on the streets of the UK's capital has degraded to such an extent that the police force has openly given up the fight, and admitted that simply carrying a plastic bag with a brand name on is an excuse for robbery.
SPOnG wonders what other kinds of plastic shopping bag, timing and location demand, “Come and mug me!” Would, for example, a Harrods’ bag at 7:35 on a Tuesday night in Knightsbridge also be met with the same kind of police statement? Give us your bag, times and locations for curfew ideas in the Forum.
Do you live in Walthamstow? Did you go to the GAME midnight launch? Email us at feedback@spong.com with the real story. In fact, if you went to any of the PS3, Wii, World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade midnight launches, email us and tell us how you were mugged for your plastic bag... or were not!
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Comments
Hypnotoad 29 Mar 2007 00:15
1/1
Give them hell on this one SPOnG - I'm sick to death of this kind of mainstream 'reporting'. Make those pigs squirm in their own s**t and be sure to report all responses in a follow-up (being sure to skew the headline accordingly).