To think that there doesnt need to be a 'story' behind a death

[OhDoAdmit]

I am referring to the dreadful, horrible motorway collision on Friday.

I hope that I am wrong and there are other resons but I have a feeling that the press are particularly interested in particular victims because of their 'back story'.

The people featured so far are as imporant as all the others of course. I just get the feeling that the media are digging about looking for something a bit more extra.

What more do we need? These people have died. It is utterly awful and so many lives will have been shattered for ever and ever.

They are all important. They will all leave a massive void. Why do the press need more sadness, more irony, more pathos?

I am so sorry for all of the families devastated by this accident. I watched it unfold as I sat in my hotel room after arriving at a weekend gathering for bereaved parents.

Our children all died in different ways, at different ages, in different places for different reasons. They were all loved and will all be forever missed.

I hope this makes sense. It is not meant in anyway to take away from the tradgedy of the victims so far featured on the news. I have purposly not named them because I do not want a google search to come up with this thread. It is about the need for the media to have something to hang a story on. A terrible loss does not seem sufficient.

Yanbu. The media like to find a back story to high profile deaths and to often don't care who they hurt along the way.

I think it's a way for the press to 'humanise' the victims to readers. Otherwise it'd be easy to think of them as just numbers (seven die) instead of people (married retirees etc) IYSWIM.

I saw think it was on the front of the fail a picture of a girl and the headline 'girl orphaned by motorway tragedy'
Wonder if she cosents to such an awful thing happening to her being made tommorows chip wrappers?

Reporting facts like they are married is very different from camping out outside the home of the bereaved looking for any information they can get

YANBU

A friend at university's father died very suddenly at a high-profile sporting event. He turned out to have an undetected heart condition that caused his death.

Instead of just reporting the simple fact that he had died in such unusual circumstances a couple of reporters went digging for an "angle". They kept turning up at my friend's student house asking her about ridiculous things like whether he had ever been abusive to his family. It was disgraceful.

Totally agree sirzy.

But they didnt just say they were married. It was the 'devoted couple die together' type thing. This is not a harmful or offensive thing to say and it very probably correct. They dont know this however and they dont care. It just makes good press.

ilkboo but is it a chicken and egg? Would we need them to be 'humanized' in this way if the press had not spent years sensationalizing and lying about the simple and dreadful facts?

They just want someone to blame don't they :( Yanbu.

It must be hell for the organisers of that firework display. They are being touted by the press as reckless and negligent when really the crash was caused by awful weather, some smoke from millions of bonfires and inevitably some poor driving.

Fireworks don't cause that much smoke anyway IME.

the daily wail seems obsessed with the value of dead peoples homes - very odd

YANBU

I am watching the news now and they are talking about more people. It could be that they are just taking more time to find out about the other victims.

I am cynical though. The way the press behaves when someone dies is usually utterly vile.

They always are. Unless your house is worth 350k you are a waste of oxygen and deserve to die/be abused/get cancer/be a victim of a crime.

I spent a weekend with over a hundred bereaved parents.

My DD was young, beautiful and clever. She died in an 'acceptable' way, she has a famous cousin. She died of a disease that everyone fears.

People can be crass but they are almost always sympathetic and sorrowful when they hear about her, see her picture, read her story.

I met parents at this weekend who do not have this comfort. They lost children who were older, less photogenic, perhaps had criminal records, maybe died from drugs or drink.

Their children were no less loved than mine. No less missed, no less mourned. Their parents are no less shattered than I am.

It saddens me to think of them perhaps unable to share their stories for fear of peoples reactions.

Witness the vileness after Amy Winehouse died.

I wish people would stop and think and try and empathise.

YANBU

The other issue I have with these sort of tragedies is that there is ALWAYS a line like 'the worst accident since 198XX' or 'in 10 years' - like somehow it is appropriate to compare tragedies. It is bad - it doesn't really matter about the time - it is a tragedy and there will be personal tragedy and loss ..

Could it not be a combination of everything rather than just a single circumstance - lets wait and see what comes up in the investigation before the press decide the guilt and lay blame

OP I'm sorry for you loss.

You are right about the sensationalising of death, and also right about the way the press will make it more newsworthy if they are 'deserving' children. Young, good in a photo, middle class nuclear family, white, etc etc. are seen as 'better' prospects for public sympathy and as you say all children are worthy of attention, their parents are just as broken by it.

YANBU

YANBU. When a story like this happens where do the newspapers get the pictures of the victims from? Surely their families don't supply them? I also don't like the close ups of the little (private) notes that have been left with flowers. It's all so intrusive.

They go straight to facebook now.

When DD died they went to her memorial site and lifted a tribute left by her cousin and put it in the paper without permission.

If it were all sincere it would be different. But it isnt is it? There has to be a hook or they dont bother.

There must be irony, there must be a pretty face, there must be something to make it worth their while.

That recent murder trial. There was SO much media coverage. She deserved justice, her death WAS very important. But why so much coverage? The murder was awful but it wasnt extraordinary. I really want this to come out right - her death was an abomination but the Guardian alone had about five seperate articles in one addition, going over all the implications and details.

She was a beautiful, clever and lovely young woman. I cannot help but think that it was because of her status that the press were so fascinated.

I don't really agree with the OP. The reports I have heard, basically from the BBC, have been more of a celebration of the lives of the victims.

OhDoAdmit that is truly horrible. I am so sorry. I didn't know the newspapers could do that without permission.
Agree about the recent murder case. Did we really need to see the inside of her flat for instance? I know exactly what you mean.

These are all the reasons I don't read newspapers, I can't stand this sort of stuff. I can feel enough empathy for "Man, 21, dies when car leaves road" as I can for "Promising young rubgy star has dreams snatched away in horror smash" thanks all the same, Daily Fail.

But only certain victims so far mind

The young girl in hospital? It seems to have focused more on the awfulness of her losing more family members. I dont think I have heard her sister's name or seen her picture yet. The seem more interested that she has now lost her sister and father after losing her mother.

These ARE terrible things and utterly deserving of our sympathies. I do not think that is why the press have seized upon them.

But I am cynical.

Yes-they seem to have latched on to the idea that she has been orphaned and that her father used a wheelchair. They also like to point out that the girl doesn't know yet as she is in a coma. However the general public do. How can that be right?

I think you are right, I think it is terrible that your dd's fb page was raided and a famous cousin's words taken out of that context for a story and I understand why you feel so uncomfortable with this. It is awful that people can't just see the tragedy for what it is, a tragedy no matter what the person who has died or been hurt looks like or what they earn etc

working it wasnt FB it was her memorial site. I dont think facebook was around in 2006 was it? DD would have loved it

I know of parents who have been approached via their children's memorial sites by journos looking for a story.

I know these sites are not to everyone's taste but they bring a lot of comfort to a lot of people. Its dreadful that they have become a source of fresh meat for the vultures.

Sparkling yes its dreadful. They keep finding more nuggets of tradgedy to report on. Every new report has a bit more. First it was that her father and sister had died, then it was she had lost her mum, now her father is being described as 'her disabled father', they have found her boyfriend and that they met in a charity shop raising funds for the hospice that cared for her mother.
They must be rubbing their hands together with glee.

That poor child is in a coma in hospital whilst her life is laid bare for the tittilation of the masses.

The very fact that people died, the very fact that this girl and others are still gravely ill in hospital is enough. Who needs all the rest?

I find it very disturbing.