Chapter 278 Public Opinion War Begins
News needs to be timely. Rita Skeeter's report was published in the Daily Prophet the day after the interview. Yinxin also officially launched the newspaper reading module on the same day, and Yinxin users can read news from newspapers in various countries.
Reading newspapers from multiple countries on the same medium at the same time can be achieved through membership items of the International Newspaper Reading Club, but Yinxin was the first to bring this function to the general public, which was groundbreaking. Yinxin's reputation and popularity doubled immediately.
While readers are excited about the new features, when they start reading newspapers, they will immediately feel something is wrong after reading the Daily Prophet and any two other newspapers.
The Daily Prophet, a serious official newspaper, also reported the most watched competition on its front page, but the language was exaggerated and frivolous, and the focus was not on this exciting competition, but only on Harry Potter and Della Riddle. They only saw the names of the other three heroes in the last line!
The wizards of Country Y actually don't hate Rita Skeeter's content, because reading her reports is like reading a novel filled with melodrama and passion, and it is easy to be emotionally aroused and discuss with others. However, once such articles are put together with ordinary articles from other famous newspapers, there is immediately a sense of awkwardness like a third-rate tabloid meeting the official media.
Wizards from Country Y felt ashamed. Foreign wizards were first surprised by Rita Skeeter's reporting style. Then, dissatisfaction arose in Country F, E Ross and some Nordic countries where Durmstrang recruited students. As the host country, Country Y used such a small amount of words to introduce the warriors who brought glory to them?
Worse still, the silver letter contained newspapers from many previous issues, so all the stories about Rita Skeeter during the Riddle trial and Kodostoritz's application for the contest were dug up for comparison.
Rita Skeeter's report also gave them some additional information, such as Della Riddle used snakes to intimidate classmates while in school and did not seem to be a good student, and Arlian, who helped the disadvantaged, had a Muggle-born mother.
Regardless of whether the news is true or false, anyone with an eye can easily discover Rita Skeeter's trick, which is to imply that a victim has a bad record. An imperfect victim cannot affect the legal verdict, but it can arouse discussion.
Saying that a politician who helps a pro-math group has related bloodline or environment immediately makes the demands of the group being helped invisible and only brings the topic to the issue of discrimination based on bloodline.
The Daily Prophet published all of these articles and put them on the front page.
Within a day, the international community was filled with ridicule towards the Daily Prophet and Rita Skeeter. I'm sure they will be on the front pages of other countries tomorrow. I just wonder if the Daily Prophet has the courage to respond.
The bloody storm outside did not affect Hogwarts at all. Without any connection to the silver and mail, this place was still a pure land of public opinion.
Oh, the term "pure land" is not quite accurate. Students can still read the Daily Prophet. Hogwarts is the recipient of a single message.
"What is this about?" Draco, who had originally opened the newspaper with great anticipation to read the report about Della, and the others at the Slytherin table shouted in anger. He unfolded the newspaper to Della, who was mixing a salad beside him, and said, "How could she write about you like this!?"
Della looked at the photo of her and Harry on the front page, which was back to back and created a confrontational atmosphere. She curled her lips, followed Draco's movement to unfold the newspaper, and read the article that praised Harry, belittled her, and ignored other heroes. She calmly commented, "It's quite eye-catching."
"She wrote that about you!" Draco was still very angry. He leaned over to Della's ear and said, "I heard that Rita Skeeter is still in Hogsmeade waiting to report on the next project. Maybe we can..."
"Believe me, Draco," Della grabbed Draco's hand and soothed him gently, "Rita Skeeter will get her comeuppance soon."
Draco's eyes opened, he and Della moved closer, and asked in a low voice, "Did your brother go out last night just for this?"
"For many things," Della didn't expand on the topic, and didn't care that Rita Skeeter's article had given her a new round of probing and mocking looks. She smiled at Draco, "Instead of thinking about these things, it's better to think about how you're going to take me to Hogsmeade this weekend."
"Yes, yes, yes!" Seeing that Della was not sad about the damn report, Draco felt relieved and turned to look forward to this weekend sweetly. "This is our first time to go to Hogsmeade together!"
Draco moved the knife and fork to cut the fried eggs, constantly slicing and slicing, thinking about the itinerary for him and Della to travel.
Before the weekend he was looking forward to, another round of news about Rita Skeeter began to unfold. This time, Rita Skeeter was labeled a murderer who used words and public opinion to kill people.
The erotic articles written about Lytia Abate were dug up, and the D Country Witness newspaper intercepted those texts and interviewed Lytia Abate, who is now a professor at Durmstrang.
The woman, who was imprisoned for being accused of participating in a number of black magic activities in the past, produced her well-preserved files. The doubts in the files were very prominent. There was no direct evidence in the files to prove that she participated in those dark activities.
So the Witness wrote, 'According to the general legal procedure, all the things displayed in the file are not enough to convict, but the Y Country Wizard Court adopts a jury system, and Miss Abbott was voted guilty. This happened after Rita Skeeter's inflammatory article "Lover Running to Darkness" was published. Miss Abbott was described in the article as the most arrogant lover in front of the Dark Lord and this image was widely circulated. We don't know the truth, but there will be a certain connection between public opinion and the jury's voting results...'
This article was written by the outstanding E. Ross reporter. The former editor-in-chief who was squeezed out of the major newspaper still has considerable ability, and his serious language can secretly increase the public's trust in this matter.
Is Lytia a Death Eater? Yes.
Did Lytia participate in Death Eater activities? Actually, she watched from the sidelines, but she was not caught with evidence, so she was considered to have participated.
Is Lydia Voldemort's lover? In a sense, she is.
From this perspective, it is true that Rita Skeeter added too much personal speculation to the report, but it is also true that Lytia was convicted by the jury without any evidence. It is hard to say whether the conviction was influenced by Rita Skeeter's article.
But it didn't matter, because the public opinion now obviously turned to Rita Skeeter's hostile side. She used ambiguous words to slander others, and Della hit her back, and she wanted to do much more than that.
On Friday, the owls brought the Daily Prophet in their beaks again, and the students who read newspapers bought them as usual, and then opened their eyes wide at the front-page headline "Multiple Wizards File Joint Lawsuit Against Rita Skeeter".
Rita Skeeter uses such a low-brow way to squeeze traffic from the Dark Lord's daughter and the savior, so what about ordinary people?
There were businessmen who went bankrupt due to groundless doubts about the quality of their products, stage actors who were forced to retire due to gossip about their products, countless officials from the Ministry of Magic who were accused of concealing things and performing their duties poorly, and many ordinary wizards who happened to appear in the news but were written about in a random manner, affecting their original social lives.
The files on Rita Skeeter are shocking to read. When these deeds are put together, people realize how destructive words can be. Rita Skeeter, who disrupted other people's lives with words, is as sinful as the notorious prisoners in Azkaban!
Maggie will then lead them to realize that the Daily Prophet, which published all these reports, is also an accomplice.
Then, the Y Country Insight Newspaper they are going to launch can be launched online.