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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think the ITV news last night was shocking?

104 replies

CoralRose · 22/02/2012 13:01

Or possibly I'm being naive as it's the first time I've watched the 10o'clock news in a long time.

Of course, I don't think we should be sheltered from the horrors of what is happening around the world, and the events itself are truly shocking,

however

surely there could have been explicit warnings before they showed those dreadful pictures last night.

I honestly couldn't sleep.

I'm not sure such graphic images are completely necessary are they?!

I'm talking about the first piece on Syria.

OP posts:

daenerysstormborn · 22/02/2012 13:28

it's shocking to us but for some people, both children and adults, this horror is part of their daily life.

it was the 10 o'clock news you were watching, not an andrex puppy ad.

SootySweepandSue · 22/02/2012 13:29

I think the new should be Real. That's why I watch C4 news only. Once you get used to it it the BBC news is unbelievable wrt being dumbed down.

CointreauVersial · 22/02/2012 13:29

I didn't know about Marie Colvin! How sad.

Yes, the Syria piece brought tears to my eyes, but if someone in power is going to be shocked into doing something about the situation then it's not a bad thing to have such graphic reporting.

They would probably have issued a warning pre-watershed.

flibbertywidget · 22/02/2012 13:29

I think this is a consequence of how immune we have become to suffering due to information overload. A picture tells a thousand words, you only have to see the adverts for save the children.

However, the news is the news, thanks to technology & brave journalists, more people can see the atrocities committed by dictators and their regimes across the world and take action.

And in the case of Syria, we all need to take action.

Original poster

CoralRose · 22/02/2012 13:29

I don't think I'm being disrespectful NorthernLurker?

These images are truly distressing and upsetting. I think too much of these sorts of images, without warning, could lead to desensitisation.

OP posts:

cubscout · 22/02/2012 13:30

YANBU to be shocked, I am shocked. We should all be shocked. YABU to expect TV news not to broadcast. It's journalists job to make us sit up and take notice. Sadly, journalists are also being killed.

GavisconJunkie · 22/02/2012 13:30

YABU. This is the news, it should under NO circumstance be sanitised. Would you have looked away? Would this discussion exist?

AIBU to be horrified that the west seems happy to pick & choose which conflicts we interfere in?

Original poster

CoralRose · 22/02/2012 13:31

"it was the 10 o'clock news you were watching, not an andrex puppy ad."

Oh, I see. Well thanks for clearing that up for me, I withdraw my OP.

OP posts:

Psammead · 22/02/2012 13:31

Do what I do and don't watch. Such images are haunting and imo unnecessary. Knowing about the situation is enough without seeing it in all its horrific 'glory'.

loopydoo · 22/02/2012 13:31

Isn't not showing it though, a bit like denying it's happening?

Images of war are more likely to change minds than allowing what's happening to be hidden away.

D0oinMeCleanin · 22/02/2012 13:31

People in the UK are not being murdered en masse by their own government piprabbit. I would imagine if we were the news coverage would be the same.

GavisconJunkie · 22/02/2012 13:32

Also YABU to watch itv news

dandelionss · 22/02/2012 13:33

YANBU there should have been a warning.These images are coming right into your home and you shouldn't have to watch them if you don't want to.

WorraLiberty · 22/02/2012 13:33

I think desensitisation is more likely to happen when you just hear a Newsreader saying "Blah blah blah...Syria...deaths...blah blah"

Those poor people are going through hell and the rest of the world would do well to understand just a tiny bit of that hell....even if it is just by being shown a minute or two of footage.

Original poster

CoralRose · 22/02/2012 13:34

Oh god! I'm not talking about hiding it! It should be reported, of course!! But images of a dying baby and a dead toddler?? Really?!

OP posts:

piprabbit · 22/02/2012 13:34

Hmm - maybe. Although the 7/7 coverage was remarkably respectful in comparison.

OneHandFlapping · 22/02/2012 13:34

I didn't see the image, but I've seen similar images in the past. I think they have a role to play in emphasizing the human suffering of people caught up in the conflict. Every parent can empathise with a father carrying his dead toddler in his arms.

Too often conflicts are sanitised. We need to be reminded of the true cost of war.

strangenoisesfromthebathroom · 22/02/2012 13:35

Oh, poor, poor you, losing sleep ......... no empathy or pity for "an injured baby, losing it's battle for life" "an injured fathering cradling his dead toddler" and young boys "caressing the face of their dead father" then?

Why don't you redirect your anger and disgust towards the people doing the killing instead of aiming it at the courageous people risking their lives, (and losing them) to report it.

Piteful, unbelievably piteful.

porcamiseria · 22/02/2012 13:36

Its horrible, and I can imagine that its hard to erase these images from your head. but YABU

Psammead · 22/02/2012 13:38

I agree, OP.

I think that people just need pictures rather than just words to help them understand the horror. I do not, and I find it horribly disrespectful and intrusive to film other people's misery just so someone watching it on TV thousands of miles away understands that a situation is 'really bad' and not just 'quite bad'.

Northernlurker · 22/02/2012 13:38

From the Daily Telegraph:

Of Marie Colvin 'Her editor, John Witherow, spoke of his "great shock" at her death, describing her as "an extraordinary figure in the life of the Sunday Times" who would be "sorely missed".

He said she was: "Driven by a passion to cover wars in the belief that what she did mattered. She believed profoundly that reporting could curtail the excesses of brutal regimes and make the international community take notice. Above all, as we saw in her powerful report last weekend, her thoughts were with the victims of violence."

This is a visual, multi media age. If we film it we believe it happened. This is happening - all the horror of it should be clear.

YouCantTeuchThis · 22/02/2012 13:38

I agree with flibberty - I do think that the more shocking images we are exposed to, the less 'shocked' we become...almost detached and accepting that that is what happens in other places

But then, I don't think we should stop seeing them either - as long as they don't feel gratuitous then I think the news should be reported candidly and not dumbed down.

Pinot · 22/02/2012 13:40

100% agree with NorthernLurker.

porcamiseria · 22/02/2012 13:43

it did make me cry. fuck we are SO FUCKING LUCKY to be alive in the west in 2012

Original poster

CoralRose · 22/02/2012 13:44

"Oh, poor, poor you, losing sleep ......... no empathy or pity for "an injured baby, losing it's battle for life" "an injured fathering cradling his dead toddler" and young boys "caressing the face of their dead father" then?

Why don't you redirect your anger and disgust towards the people doing the killing instead of aiming it at the courageous people risking their lives, (and losing them) to report it.

Piteful, unbelievably piteful."

Sleep reference was made to show how distressing the images are. This is thread about graphic and horrifying images being broadcast without warning, and whether or not this is right. Happy to be told I'm wrong, if anyone has a completely valid reason for why they are shown. Not sure how you have come to the conclusion that this shows a lack of empathy?

I'm not angry, or disgusted, in fact. I'm appalled and outraged that, firstly, this is happening, and secondly that it's become acceptable to broadcast such images without warning.

Perhaps you should redirect your anger into a valid argument about the subject in my OP.

OP posts:

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