Is it really neccessary to print a picture of a man dying to illustrate the story of his death?

[WidowWadman]

Hate Mail

Cyclist Wouter Weylandt died in a horrific accident in the Giro d'Italia yesterday. There's tons of tributes and thoughtful articles about him. Mostly illustrated with pictures of him smiling and alive.

The Mail chose to print stills of him lying on the ground, being seen to by paramedics.

Am I being unreasonable to find this distasteful, ghoulish and undignified? Does it add anything to the story?

That does seem pretty tasteless, I agree. It seems to be the done thing these days in the media. When that toboggan/luge competitor died in the Vancouver winter Olympics, photos of his corpse were printed in the papers.

That's the Mail all over though. It indulges every base human impulse. I was looking at the website the other day and there was a huge story with the headline "THE MOMENT HUMAN CANNONBALL PLUNGED TO HIS DEATH" or somesuch, with several pictures.