Lemmings.

Like nany others in the village, I was surprised last thursdat morning to turn on the early morning BBC radio programme 'Good Morning Devon' to find that Silverton was headline news.  It appwaes that Radio Devon had picked up on the story first published in the locasl papers  some weeks ago, regarding the dispersal order that had come into force in the villagr following recent inciodents of anti social behaviour.  Radio Devon slanted the story to try and emphsise the 'shock/horror' value of a 'picture postcard village' neing plagued by a wave of anti social behaviour. The chair of the parish council and assorted villagers, appeared on the programme speaking for and against the order and it was the subject of the Radio Devon phone in programme at lunchtime the same day.

What we then had was the rest of the local broadcast media acting like a pack of lemmings with BBC and ITV camera crews and reporters running around the Square trying to get interviews with anyone who appeared to be interested in talking to them and even filming a couple of the local youth sitting on a bench.  All followed the Fadsio Devon 'picture postcard' line with no real analysis or understanding of the fact that  most of the events that led to the imposition of yje dispersal order in the first place, are little different then events that have been paty of the life of communities like Silverton for decades, if not centuaries. Given that the order has been in place for weeks and that the anti social incidents had dried up, this was a classiv non story blown up to fill in the space on the news programmes on a 'slacj news day'.  This was all but admitted in an echange of eMails between Sue Banks, of this parish, and Mark Tyler, the owner of Radio Exe on Facebook the day  following.

A few things come to mind arising from this situation.  The Silverton story was an example of journalism at its laziest and worst. A non story was inflated to fill in a few minutes on a news programme without any of the media outlets involved being inclined to find an original angle. If they can cover a story like the Silverton dispersal order in this  fashion, how many other, more serious stories, get treated in the same manner. Additionally, an issue within the village which most had thought was in the process of being resolved, has now been stirred up again to no ones benefit and there is no doubt the belief in the South West generally that Silverton is now one of the crime capitals of Devon.

 One can only hope that the media will give as much attention to the ongoing work being done in the village to deal with the underlying problems that led to the imposition of the dispersal order in  the first place, but giben the notoriously short attention span of the media I shall not be holding my breath.