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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
CarrieLouise25 · 28/08/2015 00:05

I was just thinking about the Shoreham Air Crash. People who were there had taken photos, and the Police asked everyone 'It is not our place to dictate what may or may not be published anywhere, but from a personal perspective I would ask people to consider the feelings of those who have lost loved ones in this incident and, indeed, who may still not have heard from them and are seeking information.'

So although they cannot dictate, they asked people to be considerate of those who died and their families.

Yet the papers clearly never show any consideration, if it means selling papers.

Original poster
Pipbin · 28/08/2015 00:15

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.

I saw the pictures in question when I saw all the front pages of the papers today.
I haven't bought a newspaper in a long time and if I did it certainly wouldn't be the Mail.
I won't comment on the pictures you are talking about as I haven't seen them.
Don't try and turn this round to race. You have no idea what race anyone here might be.

OP posts:
PiperChapstick · 28/08/2015 00:19

YANBU. I don't want us to be a desensitised nation. I lived in U.S. for a while and they have footage of ashoktings, stabbings etc on evening news. I was Shock I don't want this country to turn that way

PiperChapstick · 28/08/2015 00:20

*shootings and stabbings

PiperChapstick · 28/08/2015 00:21

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.
Hmm

People probably haven't been up in arms because this is the first they've heard of it. The Virginia shootings have been extremely high profile in last 48 hours

hebihebi · 28/08/2015 01:17

But you have seen the ISIS pictures, haven't you? Every day the Mail online is full of pictures of people being killed, tortured. Stories of children being raped and sold. Awful but every single day they have these stories. What happened to this woman was no worse than what has happened to any of these people so why is this such a big story and the other stories aren't? Why are you all so upset about what happened to this woman but not the others? How can you say it's not about race?

Anyway, I don't want to derail your thread of righteousness but why not spare a thought for the others who have had their deaths published and their families too?

Arsenic · 28/08/2015 03:13

Hebi have you RTFT?

hebihebi · 28/08/2015 04:22

Yes, I did. I guess it's just because it's always the Chinese ones that are published. There was an awful video of a Chinese woman who was killed by a faulty escalator but pushed her child to safety. Yes, they posted a video of this poor woman being killed. The UK press would never post that video if it was of a British woman but because she's Chinese then it's ok somehow.

That's why I can't get even remotely bothered about these pictures of the American reporter. Because the Mail posts this stuff every single day only usually much worse. The only difference I can see in the up-cry is because she is white American not Chinese. The online papers publish these things because people click on them, the more clicks they get then the more advertising money they get. The Mail online is not a "news"paper in that sense (I know someone else pointed this out earlier), it just reports what gets clicks.

For me this was mild because the stuff they usually post is much more graphic and much more brutal. That's why it does bother me that people are saying the press crossed a line here. The line was crossed a very long time ago.

hebihebi · 28/08/2015 04:26

Anyway, as I said feel free to ignore my comments, perhaps they're not relevant.

Arsenic · 28/08/2015 04:48

But we WERE discussing the ISIS pictures way up there^ Confused

Inkanta · 28/08/2015 07:00

Well Helihebi - I agree that all these type of pictures should not be published.

Yesterday I was very shocked at the footage of the newsreader and I very glad to see a thread had been started on the subject. It's just so wrong and unethical to publish that moment of murder. The papers surely must have a code of ethics but obviously don't abide by them.

Iggly · 28/08/2015 07:02

The issue here is shit like the daily mail website.

Who do we complain to? I hate that website with a passion

Arsenic · 28/08/2015 07:16

The code that is in place (shockingly enough) doesn't prohibit this type of photo being published.

Writing to MPs is probably the best way to protest.

thehypocritesoaf · 28/08/2015 07:26

Ok, hebi, so you are comparing the mail online which readers voluntarily seek out (for some reason) with the front covers of newspapers in every supermarket, newsagent, petrol station in the country and saying they are the same thing?

And you are saying people in this thread who aren't up in arms about the mail online - because they don't seek it out and read it- are racist?

Nice.

Original poster
Pipbin · 28/08/2015 07:32

Exactly what Hypo said.

Every day the Mail online is full of pictures of people being killed, tortured
I don't go on the Daily Mail's website. If I did and saw images like this then I would be equally upset. However when I walked through the supermarket yesterday I was confronted with this poor woman's face at the moment of her death from a number of papers.
If you chose to look at the Daily Mail's website then that is up to you.

OP posts:
Bakeoffcake · 28/08/2015 07:41

I do find the published photos appalling, but as others have said there are many, many photos published everyday of people about to die, usually because they are being murdered.

And I don't agree that we "need" to see ISIS murdering people, inorder to understand, but it's not ok to show an American woman about to be shot. We should value the lives of everyone.

Original poster
Pipbin · 28/08/2015 07:44

I must lead a very sheltered life because I don't see these pictures all the time, but then I don't buy newspapers or look at the Daily Mail website.

I was annoyed with the BBC news for showing all the footage of the Shoreham crash.

OP posts:
Bakeoffcake · 28/08/2015 07:45

I'm sorry but I don't get this argument about it being worse because it's on the front page. You're just thinking about your own reaction, which is understandably to be appalled. But if the photos were on page 2, you wouldn't need to worry about them as you can't see them? That's rather a "stick your head in the sand" attitude.

Arsenic · 28/08/2015 07:47

How would you feel if you were in a newsagents with small DC, though Bake?

It's public realm when it's front page.

thehypocritesoaf · 28/08/2015 07:51

Well, I don't believe people about to be executed should be on the front page.
It's not only a question of their dignity and respect for the family who have to relive the full horror if they leave the house.
It's because this is what nutters like- it makes them feel powerful.
And this is what those newspapers have done. They might as well have said underneath: 'please send us your photos of your murder victims and we will give you the notoriety you crave'
And what's more, the papers know that's what they are doing. They don't expect the photo will lead to more debate about gun control -what a load of shit - they are trying to compete with social media and it's shit.

Original poster
Pipbin · 28/08/2015 07:55

I'm sorry but I don't get this argument about it being worse because it's on the front page.

It's not worse because it's on the front page, I simply had no idea that they printed all these other pictures because I don't buy newspapers and therefore I haven't seen them.
I'm not 'sticking my head in the sand', I didn't know that all these other pictures were printed.

OP posts:
Bakeoffcake · 28/08/2015 08:01

Well, I wouldn't be a small newsagent, Arsenic as I wouldn't want to selling newspapers that have no morals or filter.

Bakeoffcake · 28/08/2015 08:01

be selling

Arsenic · 28/08/2015 08:02

IN a newsagents Bake, not BEING a newsagent Smile

Plateofcrumbs · 28/08/2015 08:03

I believe that good journalism sometimes need to present us with images that are shocking or upsetting, but to me this very clearly crossed a line because of the element of complicity with the murderer who had very clearly sought to maximise the exposure of the killings.

Similar issues also need to be considered in relation to acts of terror of course, but I think in general there is a balance to be struck between what we need to see to understand the story and what is simply giving murderers or terrorists the publicity they crave.