Front pages of papers - so mad!

[harrisey]

I am so mad with today's press. When my usual Guardian arrived today I found myself floundering to explain to my ds (4) what the picture on the front was about. It was the dead body of Al-Zarqawi!
Now I know this is news but heck, I didnt really want to have to explain American 'justice' to a little boy who is not yet even at school. You would think they could take a little more care with their front page - this image could much more tastefully have been shown inside the paper (if we needed to see it at all - I beleive he is dead without then having to show me his face).
It just seems a bit distasteful - and I want to know how they would choose to explain it to a 4yo! So I emailed them!

So don't show the front page to him

It is not a publication designed for 4yos fgs

Actually I see your point harrisey

Seriously, some publications are aimed at children and others are not
This one is not

Yes obviously, but if it is posted through your letterbox for instance it is quite plausible that a child will see and intercept it before an adult does

I dont like this either, but for totally different reasons and its too late to go into why tbh.

it's just a bit difficult having to hide the paper from the children.
I agree that it should have been inside (I think it was in the Indy)

i agree with cd, life cannot be put to thelevel of a 4 year old. otherwise wewoudl have cbeebeis on the front of theguardian

Absolutely, just imagine casually shaking out your broadsheet over the table and then all of sudden your 4 year old is eyeball to eyeball with some dead geezer

i am sorry but i think this is ridiculous.

It'd make for some pretty morbid papier mache....

its an adult newspaper - if it was my child 0 i woudl say - a bad man died

and leave it at that.

then say - now go clean the chimney you little brat

You don't need to apologise for being wrong Beetroot

Did the Headline say "Ding dong the Witch is dead...."?

i am not wrong HMC, I am just not precious!

Oooh ouch! tetchy!

Your 4 year old clearly has an enquiring mind, don't think either of mine would have even noticed it. Probably wouldn't notice it now as teenagers!!

It isn't a matter of showing the front page to a child - it is on view for all to see. Newspapers don't have a 'cover'. So maybe some things should be inside the paper. However this news is worthy of the front page and I have'nt seen the photo so can't judge.

It isn't as though it is the first dead man on the front of a paper, and custardo's response probably is the best bet - matter of fact, no mucking.

Can't get worked up about this myself. This is how children gradually get a picture of the world around them. It may not be rosy. I know a lot of people on here want to shelter their children while they can, but a gradual and natural introduction seems like a good thing to me, esp. if they have caring parents around to explain. 4 year olds in Iraq see much worse (sorry ot be sanctimonious!)

found myself watching the 7 o clock news tonight (never normally do but telly was on cos of footie) and kind of had to do a double take about whether or not a 4 year old ought to see a little girl being rushed into hospital coz she'd been injured by Israeli shells. DD was very interested, (why was she hurt? what are the doctors going to do? what are the people saying?)and I kind of thought, well, unfortunately this is what the world's like and - within reason - you might as well see it in its technicolour glory. When the Dr Who trailer came on afterwards she ran out of the room.

I think it's unnecessary to show dead people full stop.

Does it add anything to the story? No, it just keeps the ghoulish people happy. Report the fact that he's dead, the hows and whys etc but a picture? Pure ghoulishness.

I find it appalling when they print photos of people who have died in assorted accidents and natural disasters too. Show the devastation yes but not pictures of the people who have died.

I've seen articles about how they tend to show dead bodies more easily when said bodies are non-white, and hence more distant from the experience of most of the picture editors etc involved. Not that they actually think, "yeah, ok, that one's not white, we can show him", but still ...

And, by and large, I don't see the point of pictures of dead people anyway. Most newspaper pictures seem to be there just to make the pages look a bit more interesting, anyway.

i think it shows a lack of dignity and respect to show dead people, whoever they are.
I was very upset last night to see the footage of the girl lying over the dead body of a family member on the beach in Gaza.
I am a grown up and i know this stuff happens and I am informed about these things, so it really really doesn't change anything for me to see her distress and the body
And how can the camera operater just follow such an obvioulsy distressed girl around like that?
now that does make me wonder about whether or not we are losing humanity through this full on reportage type thing

so, yes i agree but not becuase a four yr old might see it, just because anybody might see it tbh.

i seem to remember outrage that fhm and the like had semi naked women on their covers - seems a bit odd that so many people class that as immoral and unnecessary and yet a corpse isnt a problem for a lot of people. should maybe have put the paper on the top shelf today [stirring emoticon]