Lock up your daughters, and if they do escape, pray, pray, pray, that they don’t end up in a bingo hall! Because if they do, they’re probably going there to score a bag of Bolivian marching powder from Dotty Doris the dealer.
Really? Well, not exactly, but, after an ‘investigation’ by The Sun newspaper, a few other publications are running some stories that are a bit sensationalist. It all started when The Sun apparently swabbed surfaces in the toilets of 17 bingo halls and came up with traces of cocaine in 7 of them.
So why are we referring to this as a ‘moral panic’? A moral panic occurs when the media get hold of something and exaggerate it, and sometimes twist facts in their search for a headline grabber, and more importantly it may cause the target of the story to suffer indirectly or directly.
One publication has pronounced that 50% of UK bingo halls are home to cocaine users. Firstly, 7 + 7 = 14, not 17, so that’s wrong for starters, it is less than half, but I guess 50% ‘sounds better’… Secondly, 17 clubs were ‘tested’, and as there are roughly over 400 in the UK, this is a fatuous extrapolation. (I did notice that 2 of the clubs were in Glasgow which has a notorious drug problem and the results would probably have been the same if they had tested in libraries or dentist waiting rooms).
It continues, headline: “Increasing numbers of bingo halls testing positive for cocaine”. Increasing? Is there something we don’t know about? Are bingo halls regularly checked for drugs by journalists? Has there been a notable spike in findings of traces? Good to know that investigative journalism is not ignoring the big issues and is working solidly to bring us the really important news.
More: “Bingo venues awash with COCAINE as growing number of OAPs take drugs” Awash? If that’s the case it’s amazing that the ‘investigators’ managed to make their way through the crowds of gyrating and jabbering pensioners to the toilets to collect their samples.
And, why on earth did The Sun do this anyway? I guess we have to their motive, means and opportunity.
Motive – grab a headline. Tick.
Means – buy a few swabs, head out to bingo hall. Tick.
Opportunity – hmm, old people’s homes would be more appropriate than a bingo hall (but not as accessible, even for a sneaky journo), as despite the blue rinse image, a lot of younger people do play, so, not entirely representative. Tick. (Young people? Now that may be a clue…).
This is the sort of soft nosed speculative journalism that has come to characterise the red tops’ reporting style, and we don’t have to list them, we all know who they are. Dubious use of statistics is something that is becoming all too commonplace in the media, and doesn’t do anyone any favours (except the red tops).
There may well be an increase in the use of cocaine by older people, but, that is another issue and cannot be confirmed or otherwise through half-hearted(witted) journalism and 10th rate social research. If you carried out the same tests in any number of entertainment venues the results would probably be similar or, much higher.
And having said that, it would be interesting to see the results of cocaine swab testing in the toilets of the major media outlets, wonder what the percentage would be there?…Leave bingo alone, and write about something worth writing about…
The only upside of this may be that after reading these articles young people may see bingo halls as more adventurous places, and venture through their doors to be hooked not a nasty class A drug, but a great British past-time.
And finally, if a red top can provide multiple CCTV footage of pensioners hobbling into bingo toilets only to emerge from them doing the rumba, I will eat my hat.
