The Media...
Yes, I know I'm part of the sick media collective that is ruining society... and I'm familiar with the hazards that those who live in glass houses associate with the flinging of projectiles... But it seems like there is some kind of tabloid war going on and I'm not happy...
Friday morning, open the Star, flick through the pages, there's a picture of the aftermath of a suicide bombing, I think in Iraq? The picture featured concerned and heavily armed policemen standing in a scene of chaos... Oh yes and the disembodied head of the suicide bomber in the middle of the street...
Gratuitous, unnecessary and frankly something I don't think I'll ever be able to get out of my head... Now, I know that in the vast world of the internet, if I were so inclined, I could see hostages being beheaded, autopsies, car crashes etc... But I have a choice - and if I don't want to see them I don't have to...
When did The Star become a snuff paper? Do I get to have a choice about whether I have to look at the head of a suicide bomber lying in the street?
Lets consider it rationally... Ok, so I don't have to buy the Star or read it... True. In fact I don't buy it... But surely I have a right to expect that I can flick through a paper without stumbling across pictures of heads in the street?
This kind of macho, full on, gore filled reporting seems to have been building up for a while.. the picture of the Dublin gangster shot dead in his car in grim, grainy black and white seems to be more and more frequent... This of course is the front cover... so, on that day you don't buy the paper... but random shots of heads in the street seems to me a step too far...
I've mentioned the internet, but consider for a moment TV or Radio... In TV there is a very firm 9pm watershed and news organisations are very careful about warning that images in the next report may be disturbing etc... In Radio there's a pretty firm code on language and obscenity, which is monitored regularly...
Even on the covers of CDs there are warnings that state this cd contains explicit lyrics... Regularly pornographic magazines are banned, or at the very least forced to wrap their covers...
So, who regulates the tabloids? Who decided whether decapitated suicide bombers are suitable for publication? It seems like nobody does...
And that leads on to the way the tabloids have behaved this week over the trial of Wayne O'Donoghue - from the accusations they have printed, to the speculation and campaigning that they engage in... None of this helps the family of Robert, none of it makes anything clearer, none of it will bring back a young life so tragically cut short... All the papers want to do is sell more copies...
JUST SAY NO TO TABLOIDS!
Yes, I know I'm part of the sick media collective that is ruining society... and I'm familiar with the hazards that those who live in glass houses associate with the flinging of projectiles... But it seems like there is some kind of tabloid war going on and I'm not happy...
Friday morning, open the Star, flick through the pages, there's a picture of the aftermath of a suicide bombing, I think in Iraq? The picture featured concerned and heavily armed policemen standing in a scene of chaos... Oh yes and the disembodied head of the suicide bomber in the middle of the street...
Gratuitous, unnecessary and frankly something I don't think I'll ever be able to get out of my head... Now, I know that in the vast world of the internet, if I were so inclined, I could see hostages being beheaded, autopsies, car crashes etc... But I have a choice - and if I don't want to see them I don't have to...
When did The Star become a snuff paper? Do I get to have a choice about whether I have to look at the head of a suicide bomber lying in the street?
Lets consider it rationally... Ok, so I don't have to buy the Star or read it... True. In fact I don't buy it... But surely I have a right to expect that I can flick through a paper without stumbling across pictures of heads in the street?
This kind of macho, full on, gore filled reporting seems to have been building up for a while.. the picture of the Dublin gangster shot dead in his car in grim, grainy black and white seems to be more and more frequent... This of course is the front cover... so, on that day you don't buy the paper... but random shots of heads in the street seems to me a step too far...
I've mentioned the internet, but consider for a moment TV or Radio... In TV there is a very firm 9pm watershed and news organisations are very careful about warning that images in the next report may be disturbing etc... In Radio there's a pretty firm code on language and obscenity, which is monitored regularly...
Even on the covers of CDs there are warnings that state this cd contains explicit lyrics... Regularly pornographic magazines are banned, or at the very least forced to wrap their covers...
So, who regulates the tabloids? Who decided whether decapitated suicide bombers are suitable for publication? It seems like nobody does...
And that leads on to the way the tabloids have behaved this week over the trial of Wayne O'Donoghue - from the accusations they have printed, to the speculation and campaigning that they engage in... None of this helps the family of Robert, none of it makes anything clearer, none of it will bring back a young life so tragically cut short... All the papers want to do is sell more copies...
JUST SAY NO TO TABLOIDS!
posted by Conformist No. 1 @ 8:28 p.m.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home