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AIBU?

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Original poster

to be utterly disgusted with the pictures on the front of some of today's papers?

130 replies

Pipbin · 27/08/2015 12:11

I was in the supermarket earlier and saw the front of most of the newspapers. All of them had the TV news people who were shot in the US on the cover.
Some of them had staff pictures of them, the kind of thing that would be on their ID cards for example, but The Daily Mail and the Telegraph had pictures taken from the film that the gunman made showing the second that the poor woman was shot.
This is the last living moments of a person. No one needs to see that and it certainly shouldn't be plastered all over the front of papers for nothing other than titillation.

I know I shouldn't expect too much from the likes of the Mail but I still want to just bitch about it.

OP posts:
honeyroar · 27/08/2015 19:44

TracyBatlow I can't see it that way. I'd rather know I tried my hardest to save a life there and then than take photos. To me they were just standing taking photos. I remember vividly thinking "why didn't they do something??" The photos may have been important in placing blame now, but they won't have saved the life of the person dying in front of their eyes.

Do you think these photos from today will be of the same importance. And that aside, they were published to make money, they could have been held back for court hearings later, but they weren't...

Capucine00 · 27/08/2015 20:10

But that's your subjective opinion about what is 'worse'. There will never be 100% concensus about which news photo or coverage is the most traumatic.

Photos from a state sanctioned execution are as much propaganda as this killers cam footage in the eyes of some. Footage from terrorist atrocities is no less a part of the terrorists propaganda than the news crew killers own footage was. When a news organisation publishes any photo or terrorist rhetoric, they become, as part of the legitimate news giving, a kind of mouthpiece for the terrorists.

To say this story was worse than others is only ever going to be your opinion because we could all find someone who will highlight a photo or footage they thought was worse

And that is why decisions need to be made on the basis of the underlying story. This killing sadly illustrates many important aspects about how news is made, about what news is, about the role of the press In being actively involved in a story and about the press people who are THE story. And I feel sure that they'd have run the footage in part, in still or whole had they been reporting on the deaths of some other news crew.

The fact that the killer filmed their deaths is, sadly and grotesquely, an important part of the story and to say that this is a reason in itself to censor is wrong. To say that this is more disturbing than many other recorded deaths is pure subjectivity and the media cannot take everyone's feelings into account.

Please don't assume I approve of some press actions either. I just think we become understandably upset and it clouds the very important issues behind the decisions taken. If these are driven by purely commercial factors then this would be wrong too and in breach of journalists codes of ethics (Yes, they do have thrrm, believe it or not!)

thehypocritesoaf · 27/08/2015 21:06

Yes, by publishing execution pictures on their front pages they become a mouthpiece for terrorists.
And yes, by publishing home made snuff videos of pretty blonde women on their front page they become a mouthpiece for every random hater.

Well done them.

Inkanta · 27/08/2015 21:24

Relieved to see this thread tonight. It's just so wrong to have shown that poor woman's last moments, and so wrong and disrespectful to the relatives. This bothered me all day.

NicoleWatterson · 27/08/2015 21:27

The bbc had footage of him shooting himself and the arrest, the police made them delete it.

Mintyy · 27/08/2015 21:34

Yanbu op. I agree wholeheartedly.

I will never accept the argument that people need to see images to understand what has gone on.

Rarity08 · 27/08/2015 22:01

When I watched the news last night I turned it over as soon as they showed the camera from the murderers aspect. I can't watch anything like that, it stays with me and makes me feel physically sick. The BBC should have put up a warning, it's the assumption that viewers won't be bothered by it.
Those victims and their family deserve respect. Dreadful for them.

Original poster
Pipbin · 27/08/2015 22:15

I will never accept the argument that people need to see images to understand what has gone on.

I remember the report on the famine in Ethiopia back in the 80s, that we needed to see. Some stories need humanising, like the current refugee situation, you need to see the fear, despair in someone's eyes to understand it.

That was NOT the case with this story. I did not need to see this woman's fear. I can understand the story fully, and form an opinion on gun ownership in America (for what that's worth) with the basic facts alone. Anything else is just ghoulish.

OP posts:
Rarity08 · 27/08/2015 22:20

I agree Pipbin, with a humanitarian crisis it's different to an individual perpetrating a violent act towards another.

Mintyy · 27/08/2015 22:24

"I remember the report on the famine in Ethiopia back in the 80s, that we needed to see. Some stories need humanising, like the current refugee situation, you need to see the fear, despair in someone's eyes to understand it."

Well I disagree with that too Pipbin.

I wonder if the papers will show us pictures of the decomposing corpses found in the back of a lorry in Austria today, to help us understand the refugee crisis?

Northernlurker · 27/08/2015 22:48

I think the pictures taken by journalists, like the words written and spoken by gifted reporters, CAN change the world. There are certain images which are so powerful that they impact on history and change events.
I think the USA needs gun reform urgently and if seeing the look on the face of a victim of gun crime doesn't do it then nothing will so I think you can argue there is a public service rationale for publishing some of the footage. However I agree it is beyond awful for the family and colleagues of Parker and Ward.

Mintyy · 27/08/2015 22:50

If the deaths of 20 children at Sandy Hook didn't do it, I can't imagine what will.

featherglass · 27/08/2015 22:59

Pleased to see so many people agreeing that these photos are unacceptable. Lots of wise words here - we shouldn't stand back and let the greedy, self important, thoughtless and uncaring determine our values - not without a fight and a protest. I can't personally stop those so lacking in compassion and ethics that they can't see how offensive that these images are - but I will complain when things like this happen.
Our children and future generations really do deserve better.

Northernlurker · 27/08/2015 23:04

I think that too Mintyy but something has to effect a change surely? I've said this on another thread as well - the thing about Sandy Hook and nearly every other gun crime is that what's reported is the aftermath and the pictures of the victims from happier times. The difference here is that this crime took place on live tv. Maybe that will bring home to people just how dangerous their gun laws make their society. Or maybe not.

Original poster
Pipbin · 27/08/2015 23:06

But Mintyy - how many times have you seen the picture of that poor man on a boat with his children alongside a caption saying 'would you look him in the eye and tell him the country is full?' Some people, the kind who post Britain First shite, need to know that the migrants are actual people, not just numbers.
I doubt we would have had Live Aid and all the fund raising in the 80s without the TV news reports.

OP posts:
Original poster
Pipbin · 27/08/2015 23:11

Maybe that will bring home to people just how dangerous their gun laws make their society.

Maybe it will - but the front pages of British newspapers are not going to do anything to change the law in the States.

OP posts:
Northernlurker · 27/08/2015 23:15

No that's very true. I can see no public interest in publishing the pictures in the UK.

trufflehunterthebadger · 27/08/2015 23:22

I'm surprised Daily Mail don't yet show bits of bodies from plane crashes or bone fragments from the recent airshow disaster.

Dh has spent the last 4 days at that scene (police) and it is like fort knox. No chance of any journos getting in.

hibbleddible · 27/08/2015 23:28

It is pretty shocking it is published, yes.

What I found equally terrible was the publication of pictures of horrifically injured people from the Boston marathon. Some relatives found out their loved ones had been injured from those photos in the press. Horrific, and a total invasion of those poor people's privacy.

I wonder what kind of person sees someone with life threatening injuries and thinks its time for a Kodak moment?

lorelei9 · 27/08/2015 23:30

I stopped reading the Evening Standard when their cover had the pic of the woman shot by her ex in a department store. I think that sort of pic should be illegal for papers to print. Then again, prob best I don't get started on papers...

That was quite a while ago, things have been this bad for a while.

CarrieLouise25 · 27/08/2015 23:35

Totally agree with you OP. I said the same today, and I will not watch any videos on it.

Poor girl, poor family.

Disrespectful to the girl and her family, to see her last moments.

Very sad day.

Never buy newspapers, hate them Angry

IguanaTail · 27/08/2015 23:40

I don't know which picture appalled me more: the one with the journalist interviewing that woman with the gun in the foreground, or her face of absolute shock, looking at the camera as she was about to be murdered.

Can you imagine a video of someone being raped or stabbed or strangled being shown? It's utterly appalling and it wasn't the poor judgment of one paper, it was most of them. Those poor poor people.

hebihebi · 27/08/2015 23:42

Yesterday the Mail also had pictures of a man drowning his 3 year old step daughter by repeatedly throwing her in a swimming pool until she drowned. I notice none of you are up in arms about that. I suppose if it was a white child rather than a Chinese child then you would care more. Sad really.

CarrieLouise25 · 27/08/2015 23:51

hebihebi, that sounds awful. I don't buy newspapers, so if it's not front page, I miss stuff.

I would definitely be up in arms about that. Chinese, British, African...wouldn't matter one bit. Poor little girl x

hibbleddible · 27/08/2015 23:54

hebi it isn't fair to say that people don't care because of the race of the child.

Like most mumsnetters I'm sure, I hadn't heard of that story, but it sounds horrific. (And why are there photos? Could whoever took the photos not saved the child instead?)