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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think that the media have been silenced??

88 replies

hellospoon · 09/08/2011 10:53

I may be well off the mark here, but I find it very difficult to believe noone has been seriously hurt or even killed during these riots!!

Does anyone get the feeling that the media has been silenced from telling us of said deaths or injuries?

If this is the case then good as it will only cause more outrage and more riots.

OP posts:
asecretlemonadedrinker · 09/08/2011 10:54

If the media didn't report, the people would via twitter etc.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 09/08/2011 10:56

YABU.... I'm sure there are a few scallies, holed up licking their war wounds at the moment, but if anyone had been killed or seriously injured do you honestly think they'd keep it to themselves? 50+ police injured. They're the ones that deserve our sympathy at the moment.

GypsyMoth · 09/08/2011 10:56

it would be leaked out......

Original poster
hellospoon · 09/08/2011 10:59

Cogito I was referring about the police, about any deaths to police / fire crew or even ambulance staff.

I just get the feeling that we wouldn't be told about them to avoid these thugs thinking they are winning.

Just a thought anyway.

OP posts:
Original poster
hellospoon · 09/08/2011 10:59

Cogito I was referring about the police, about any deaths to police / fire crew or even ambulance staff.

I just get the feeling that we wouldn't be told about them to avoid these thugs thinking they are winning.

Just a thought anyway.

OP posts:
littleducks · 09/08/2011 11:03

I'm not sure, it is also possible that it isnt known yet. Some people with serious injuries are in hospital. Also in some of the fires, there were believed to be nobody left inside the buildings but they hadnt all been properly checked yet Sad

The reporting has been odd, on Sunday night there was loads of info on here but the BBC wasnt reporting it at all. Then last night they were delaying reports, only showin filming after the rioters had moved on, possibly so as not to advertise an area and encourage people to go there.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 09/08/2011 11:16

I'm sure we would have heard if any emergency personnel had been killed as well. As for the reporting we have to take this in the context that people in the streets wandering into the riots are being mugged for their posessions. Reporters are having cameras stolen and having to go almost under-cover to get their stories. And finally, the publicity element.... you must have seen the thugs waving at the cameras, chatting happily into their phones as they lob another missile? There's a fine line between reporting what's happening and egging on the criminals to do more.

SiamoFottuti · 09/08/2011 11:16

Oh please, thats ridiculous. This is the 21st century with 24/7 news updates from every single media. Why on earth wouldn't it be reported? Hmm

And "just a thought"? There are plenty of family members around here of those people you are idly musing on their deaths, which I find rather disgusting.

joric · 09/08/2011 11:17

The news coverage is limited (and is pretty much on a loop) I agree... The news is showing very few pictures considering the scale of things.. There is something going on.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 09/08/2011 11:23

They are showing relatively few pictures because reporters and their crews are being attacked and their cameras stolen if they are seen taking pictures Joric.....

Nancy66 · 09/08/2011 11:23

There is NOTHING going on - it's just that it's not safe for news crews to be in some areas and - due to huge cutbacks - there aren't enough crews to cover all areas.

emptyshell · 09/08/2011 11:28

For the large part the emergency services have hung back owing to being grossly outnumbered... Breakfast I think it was had a figure like 44 emergency services personnel injured and 160 or something overall (1 with life-threatening head injuries) so the figures ARE out there - I may have recalled them slightly incorrectly though - it'll be on iplayer at the end of the show if anyone really wanted to see. The news have all centered for the strong iconic images - the burning buildings and burnt out London buses which is somewhat inevitable really.

I don't think with this Twitterized rioting -that injuries etc CAN be hushed up for long - there's that much footage going around from camera phones etc, there's essentially an entire nation of on-the-spot reporters that everything is getting fed very very quickly (if you can actually figure out how to work Twitter that is).

picturerail · 09/08/2011 11:28

i'm not sure whether they are being "silenced" but we are not seeing or hearing the whole story. there was definitely trouble where i work in east london and twitter, facebook and you tube all have plenty of images showing the damage but nothing has been reported on tv or the newspapers.

ThatVikRinA22 · 09/08/2011 11:28

i am sick to death of the frigging media - now the police are getting it the neck., for being too stretched.

They weren't there apparently.

no shit shirlock. that might be because the numbers have been cut in my force alone by 20%.

i do wish the politicians were stood on that front line, being pelted with firebombs and missiles and being driven at.

Our force has been put on standby for a possible PSU call out. What makes me so angry is that if the police use force they get criticised. if they dont guess what? they get criticised!

i have turned the tv off.

littleducks · 09/08/2011 11:31

Some things just arent being reported though, what happened in Harrow? The met police officer mentioned it but there is no explanation/pictures on Sky or BBC.

Same goes for Harlsden, there was trouble really early last night, barely reported.

Today everything is quiet, why arent there reports from these other areas, just Croyden/Clapham/Ealing/Hackney (which were probably the worst) on the news

Nancy66 · 09/08/2011 11:32

There's only so much they can cover though - so they are concentrating on the areas of the major disturbances there were hundreds of minor ones

joric · 09/08/2011 11:33

Cogito- not sure every camera has been smashed to smithereens or stolen TBH.
There are masses of photos on social networking sites. The press usually publish the lot.

PlentyOfPubgardens · 09/08/2011 11:36

Woolwich has been massively underreported.

HarrietJones · 09/08/2011 11:45

BBC app is v low key & was last night.

Original poster
hellospoon · 09/08/2011 11:55

SiamoFottuti

Get a grip for fuck sake being so dramatic will get you nowhere! DO NOT make my op look like i am underminding what is happening to these families, search my name if you need to and see the other posts i have contributed to, nothing but sympathy and the thought that if i could do anything to help these people i would!!

The news is on loop. There is hardly anything being reported and shown, I am pretty sure everyone here has seen the news with the phone hacking and the super injunctions which people have got in courts to silence the media and other people!

It would not surprise me if not everything is being reported and shown!

If the media report that service men or women have been killed then these thugs will see that as an achievement and then they will take to the streets again to celebrate their actions.

WHAT EXACTLY WILL BE ACHIEVED BY CIVILISED LAW ABIDING CITIZENS TURNING ON EACH OTHER? NOTHING!

OP posts:
CogitoErgoSometimes · 09/08/2011 11:59

"not sure every camera has been smashed to smithereens or stolen TBH"

You're missing the point. It's bloody dangerous for a reporter to be on the streets when this stuff is going on. The police are desperately trying to keep people out of the area. The rioters don't care who they hurt. That's why we're getting a lot of helicopter shots of fires and a lot of 'morning after' footage of burnt out buildings.

TandB · 09/08/2011 12:03

I think a lot of the lack of TV coverage is to do with the fact that large chunks of the most "interesting" locations in terms of visual coverage, are barricaded off. I went past Clapham Junction this morning and there were cameras at the barrier but they wouldn't have been able to see very much. Same with Brixton yesterday - all they would have been showing would have been an empty street - a lot of the damage wouldn't have been obvious.

SiamoFottuti · 09/08/2011 12:04

Dramatic? I'm not the one musing on the possibility of unreported dead policemen. Or indulging in paranoid media cover-up chat.

Fucking rich coming from you lady.

TheMonster · 09/08/2011 12:06

There has been an attack on a policeman in Brent which had led to arrests for attempted murder. It's awful - the man was only trying to do his bloody difficult job.

halcyondays · 09/08/2011 12:07

YABU. If somebody was killed of course you would hear about it.

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