To be pissed off about having images censored because 'someone might get upset'

[VestibuleVirgin]

Yesterday, the TV and social media were showing film and photographs of the bolting horses in London. Clearly they were terrified, and the grey had an obvious injury, with blood on its chest and legs.
This morning, GMB has blurred the grey's chest area to preserve sensibilities.
I am sick of these holier than thou people thinking they can arbitrate which images, previously freely available, they deem unsuitable.
This top-down censorship, particularly by tv companies, is not in the name of decency, just some pathetic attempt to prove that they can dictate life because they understand what the 'community' wants.

Agree!

There was an interesting conversation on the radio yesterday about imminent war and extra funding for the MOD to enable them to ramp up recruitment and spend money on defence. A few raised the point that it'll be pretty pointless given the 'delicate' people we rear these days and that there will be trigger warnings on boxes of cereal soon.

Sorry went off an a tangent there but yes agree that there's a real issue with censorship on TV, particularly surrounding the news.

GMB isn’t news though, it’s vacuous nonsense

@asbigasablueberry completely agree! Tangent away!

Would seeing a horse covered in blood have increased your understanding of events? What would it have value added to your life? This seems a strange thing to get worked up about

True; which makes it worse. Censorship by the vacuous and entitled masquerading as caring for the 'Great British public'

This was my thinking to. Seeing the injury doesn’t add anything to the story.

Saw this story on the bbc last night it wasn't censored, but it also didn't mention why they were covered in blood, I commented at the time how it was being reported in a light way when actually it's a really odd story, highly trained horses bolt and run into vehicles, I'm not suggesting any conspiracy but just found the whole thing very sad, I'd have been more confused at blurry photos

Don't be obtuse, of course it doesn't 'add' to the story. It is the fact that this was an incident, covered completely uncensored by all media and social media. It showed what was happening in real time, in real life.
So for itv to decide to censor the images on some faux 'good taste' point, is disingenuous

The point of my post, which you clearly have missed, is the censorship of stuff by media who think they can decide the rules based on no evidence.
It is not about whether blood should be shown or not, ffs.

Wow. I really don’t understand. Like genuinely don’t. Should we see the pictures of people actively being stabbed? How about children being attacked?

If you're desperate to see injured horses then search for the footage online.

Don't be ridiculous. Christ, one cannot raise a point without someone going right to the end of the bell-curve.

So why do we need to see it?

to me it seems like your issue with not seeing gory injuries on TV highlights the issue that we have gone to far the other way thanks to 24/7 media whereby we expect to see every detail of every incident with little respect for those at the centre of them.

It’s GMB though, people are eating their cornflakes, and it’s a general interest show, not ‘the news’

If it was a news bulletin then I’d agree, but in this case I think it’s fine.

Odd they show war zones and not an injured horse. Do hope the horses are ok

So why are you specifically bothered about this?

Its probably because of the morning audience, its before the watershed and a lot of children could see it. Yabu

Slightly unrelated but I overheard a woman fretting yesterday about a dead squirrel in the road near a school. She thought the children might be upset. I would have thought it was a prime opportunity to start a gentle conversation about death!

It was on the news at 6pm, 10pm and other bulletins. So children could have seen it then

People who work in the media and use news footage have to decide this all the time, they always have, else you’d be seeing dead bodies floating in a report on a tsunami.

The difference is previously they’d have either blurred with no explanation, or used other shots.

I understand your broader point about over sensitivity in our culture, but I think it’s misplaced here.

Maybe you should start by telling us what you think is acceptable to see and what is not acceptable to see. If stabbing victims aren't, but bloodied horses are, they why? Seems like you want some censorship but not other.

The BBC report I saw explained the horses bolted after a loud noise from a building site (I believe the Army spokesman said material was suddenly dropped, which to be fair would make me jump) and that one soldier was in charge of two horses at the same time, plus showed the carnage to various vehicles hit during the bolt. Ok, I'm horsey so maybe what is obvious to me isn't obvious to everyone, but as herd animals, and prey animals, it only takes one to get flighty to set off the whole bloody lot of them, and I would take a guess that it originated from the poor rider trying to control the one lead from the horse he was riding. The blood - well the horses ran into buses, vans and taxis! Also a little blood goes a long way in sweat and shows up on greys in the way you wouldn't see on the dark bays. I don't think there was anything more to report than was, without insulting the intelligence of the viewer.

I don't particularly share OP's concerns but it's ridiculous to suggest that what she's said means she wants to see pictures of children being stabbed.

Firstly, that would be considerably more graphic than the horse footage, and secondly it would reveal the identity of a victim which would take away their privacy so there is a very real reason not to show it.
OP is talking about the slightly pointless decision to censor something which was widely shown on mainstream news yesterday, and in my opinion isn't that graphic. You can see blood but you can't see the injury itself (no gaping wound etc). I don't personally think it's the problem that OP thinks it is but I am a bit surprised to hear itv have censored it. The comparison of a horse with some blood on it to a child being stabbed is an absurd stretch.

People moan about everything these days. They probably knew they would have complaints. I don't see any other reason for it?