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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

People who photograph and film the misery and pain of others

123 replies

Bejazzled · 22/03/2017 22:24

Imo are the scum of the earth.
These photos (stills from tv footage) appear to show one man and one woman doing just that rather than offering to help the injured man on the ground.

OP posts:

PunjanaTea · 23/03/2017 00:11

there are some photos taken by the general public around two but there are a set from this Reuters guy. They were up quite quickly I saw them on twitter and really wish I hadn't. I looked to see if they were still up and saw he'd written a blog piece about why he took them.

FlappinSwazy · 23/03/2017 00:13

They are still up. They have not blurred out the casualties.

The guy lying down on the floor with the broken leg, those people around him - they look shell shocked. They look traumatised. They aren't on their phones / cameras photographing it. It's such an awful photograph.

NuffSaidSam · 23/03/2017 00:13

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Dontlaugh · 23/03/2017 00:14

After all that, I'd still argue no one needs to post injured/dead/dying bodies to their social media accounts, unless they're reporting directly to the UN. And even then....

PageNowFoundFileUnderSpartacus · 23/03/2017 00:15

The person who filmed the clip from which the OP has taken the still posted it on Twitter. I looked at the responses to his Tweet and amongst a handful saying it was disrespectful, there must have been 30 or 40 different news outlets asking for permission to use it. I subsequently saw it attributed to him on the BBC website so he obviously agreed in exchange for a credit. So pardon me if I'm not inclined to hand wave away his actions as filming to be helpful to the police or out of shock or any of the other excuses people are coming up with to explain one of the less admirable traits of human nature.

Dontlaugh · 23/03/2017 00:16

Aww @NuffSaidSam the second you called someone a "cunt" you lost. Pity. Was room for a cogent argument here n all.

NuffSaidSam · 23/03/2017 00:17

'Aww @NuffSaidSam the second you called someone a "cunt" you lost. Pity'

We've all lost today. It's not about winners and losers.

And I must get off this bloody thread!

Really, good night!

FlappinSwazy · 23/03/2017 00:19

That Reuters Photography blog is harrowing. I didn't realise he had also taken a photograph of the dead woman under the bus ...

None of the photographs are blurred / fuzzed out either. I just don't feel ok with this at all. Why?

Dontlaugh · 23/03/2017 00:21

You lost when it came to debating the sanctity of posting death images.
Do NOT confuse that with the loss of life from the Police Force, the general public and the tourists who trusted London today.
Good night.

MrsCobain · 23/03/2017 00:22

Why the hell did you share it? I don't want to see this bullshit. It makes you just as bad as them.

FlappinSwazy · 23/03/2017 00:23

Pagenow Exactly.

PunjanaTea · 23/03/2017 00:29

Fuck sorry Flappin I should have said not to look.

ladymariner · 23/03/2017 00:31

I saw the Reuters photos and I wish to god I hadn't, that poor boy lying on the ground.....I hope with all my heart his mother never sees this.

Such a terrible day

Want2bSupermum · 23/03/2017 00:35

There was an awful train accident in my town here in the US and a local resident died. Not only did the DM publish pictures of her on their site but they also had someone give information from a local FB site which they published. The editor should be in jail for that. Complete invasion of privacy and totally unacceptable to publish such information.

Want2bSupermum · 23/03/2017 00:36

To be clear the pictures they published showed her lying in the rubble in her last dying moments. The lady left a DH and toddler.

ladymariner · 23/03/2017 00:41

supermum there is a picture up of a lady lying underneath a bus, it's horrific. As is the photo you're talking about, the look in her eyes is utterly heartbreaking.

PageNowFoundFileUnderSpartacus · 23/03/2017 00:44

I don't think we do need to see photographs of the victims to get the message across, as suggested above. What message is told by the photos that we couldn't get without them? That murderers are cowardly excuses for human beings? That people can be in the wrong place at the wrong time and end up dead through no fault of their own? I think we all already know that, don't we?

I have a number of problems with this. First and foremost, it's fucking disrespectful. It's reducing someone's last moment on this earth to little more than entertainment. Let's not kid ourselves that Reuters and the others are publishing these photos to inform. It's for traffic and clicks. The trauma that any family members or friends of the victims would feel, seeing one of these photos of their loved ones bleeding to death...only a ghoul could justify putting them out there. And the more they're shared and uploaded and posted and viewed, the more we send the message that taking them is acceptable and so the trend will intensify.

ladymariner · 23/03/2017 00:48

Well said, page

ladymariner · 23/03/2017 00:55

Sorry supermum I thought you were talking about the lady in the photos today....misread your posts.

I clicked on to Reuters thinking they were a responsible news agency....how wrong was I! Those photos can't be unseen and they were horrific, truly horrific. They were taken and published for shock effect, to get people talking and looking on their site.....how the hell the photographer can sleep at night is beyond me.

lalalalyra · 23/03/2017 01:11

The photo of the man who'd clearly broken his leg and the woman under the bus are horrific. There's no need for photos like that. If you are there and you feel you can take a photo tat assists the police then that's one thing, but publishing them everywhere, subjecting the families of the victims to seeing them unless they cut themselves off from the world is just callous and unnecessary.

I thought all of the coverage today was awful. Even the BBC have fallen into the sky news mould of asking inappropriate questions to shaken people.

AwaywiththePixies27 · 23/03/2017 06:40

I do agree, and its the one thing that made my blood boil with the Lee Rigby case, that someone's first thought was to film it and put it on twitter rather than at least ring for help.

However I don't think this is the case here. I agree with this.

On the bbc footage I thought they were taking photos at first but then I think how I'd hold my phone if I was trying to find the keypad (instead of recent contacts for instance) and it would probably be in exactly the same place, being held by 2 hands.

Yes what stiffstink said. I do this with my phone. When the screensaver goes off I have to shake it like one of those old magic eight balls to get it to light up and bring the keypad up too. (battered old phone). I stopped to help a lady who's fallen the other day with some others and I got my phone out to ring someone for her. I probably looked like I was getting ready to take a photo too.
Anyone who's ever walked through Leicester Square on a Friday evening, knows how packed out iconic London spots can get, complete with tourists, selfie sticks and all.

The thing is with Westminister Bridge and the HOP & the POW. They are such iconic buildings that are always packed with tourists there are bound to be some that have taken footage by accident. The video of all the people running away was captured by a tourist just unwittingly taking in and videoing the sights.

wettunwindee · 23/03/2017 06:58

I'm well and truly on the fence.

I think my first instinct would be to help but one of my better qualities is to be very cool-headed. I'd be able to have a good guess as to if my 'help' was going to be help or not. There are only so many people who can help an injured person before it becomes a case of 'too many cooks'.

Unless I was fairly sure I was one of the first to call, I don't know if I'd have dialled 999. Considering the location, there's no doubt the police would have known about what was happening extremely quickly.

I think there is a need for pictorial evidence both legally and for historical reasons: learn from your mistakes and understand what was happening at a point in history. I've attached some very moving images which I remember as clearly now as when I first saw them. In each of them the photographer could have been helping as opposed to taking a photograph. I don't know when someone becomes worthy photographer or a is a rubbernecker. Perhaps it has to do with the immediacy of sharing nowadays.

Whatever the reason, this doesn't quite sit right with me but I'm not going to condemn those who did take photos.

NormaSmuff · 23/03/2017 07:10

i am hoping she is ringing 999, that is all.

Doyouwantabrew · 23/03/2017 07:12

wetunwindee

I completely agree with your post. I think I can speak about this as my dd was photographed after a major incident and the photo was put on the front page of the dm.

Although that was totally unacceptable the actual photograph itself did help her make sense of the incident, she was unconscious so it reassured her that she had been helped by emergency services and for some reason that just helped her recovery.

However as wet put so well it's a very difficult and sensitive issue.

Op I think your photos show people calling for help.

mumonashoestring · 23/03/2017 07:12

wettunwindee I think immediacy is a big part of the problem. I know someone who was working in a press room the day of 9/11 and they were basically put on lockdown, not allowed to call anyone, and spent the next 48 hours sorting through the most harrowing, traumatic accounts and pictures as they came in to filter out the worst of it before it could be published. There are plenty of photos and videos documenting what happened that day and some of the stuff that wasn't printed at the time has been released since in documentaries, but it wouldn't have helped anyone to have it splashed all over the place at the time.

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