You know what else pisses me off? Their nonsense about "contextualising the story".
They only "contextualise" when they want. I had an e-mail exchange with one of their editors a while ago, where I was actually complaining about their failure to contextualise a domestic violence murder and this is how it went:
Me: This report concentrated on what a great guy this homicidal
maniac was. It had his picture up front (not that of his victim) and it
interviewed elected representatives in North Norfolk who ignored and
minimised the fact that he was a violent abuser. There is obviously a
history of hidden domestic violence here - normal men don't just shoot their
wives - which is totally ignored by the elected representatives of Cromer
and the reporter who wrote this article. Between 2 and 3 women a week have been murdered in the UK by their partners or ex partners this year and thissort of reporting makes it possible - it plays into the idea that normal men
just suddenly run amok and murder their (unworthy, ignorable) wives,
girlfriends and exes. It brushes over the really serious problem of
domestic violence and ignores it. 1 in 4 women are subjected to DV and
we're mostly licence-fee payers - why aren't you reporting domestic violence
and male violence against women (the biggest and most under-reported
category) properly? You have a duty to do so.
Her: Most of the initial information which emerged around the story (which was still unfolding at the point we started to write it) was connected to Mr Johnson because he was a public figure. This was also why there was a picture of him available in the first instance. As the reporting of the story developed, more detail emerged about Mrs Johnson and we have included this. In talking to those who knew the individuals involved we simply reported what they said.
We continue to work on the story about the tragic death of two individuals and will continue to add information as appropriate.
Me: "In talking to those who knew the individuals involved we simply reported what they said."
I take your point, but I think the BBC has a duty to make an effort to talk to people who might actually talk some sense. I understand the family of the murdered woman were probably too traumatised to talk to the BBC, but without fail, men who murder their wives, have had a back-history of hidden Domestic Violence and it is just not good enough for a publicly-funded broadcaster like yourselves to ignore the context in which these news stories happen - you could have talked to experts in family-annihilators or domestic abuse. Time and time again when I read about men murdering their wives and/ or children, I read minimisation and empathy with the murderer and excuses for male violence and I read apologia for men's entitlement to not have their feelings so badly hurt or provoked, that they end up murdering women and children - as if killing is not a choice they make, it's something they are driven to.
1 in 4 women live with chronic domestic violence, that is the context in which these murders happen. If a black boy or man is murdered by a white boy or man, you don't ignore the context of racism and racial violence, so why do you systematically ignore the really serious context of male violence against women? 2-3 women a week are murdered by their male partners; this is a real thing; women on the whole don't murder other women and they don't murder their male partners on the scale that men murder women. Why is the BBC not acknowledging this fact in its reporting? If it were a racist or an anti-Semitic murder, you would acknowledge the context, so why not when it is male violence against women?
I guess my point is, is that if you as a broadcaster were properly aware of the context in which this murder happened, your first report would not have been so inappropriate because you would have understood without having to be told, that this is yet another domestic violence murder. This is about properly informing the public, properly contextualising, ensuring that when you report horrific stories like this, you as a public-service broadcaster enlighten and inform instead of hiding context and in doing so, being part of the problem instead of part of the solution. The media has a role to play in tackling crimes like this, not just in reporting them; its role is to uncover the context and to make connections between each of the murders of the 2-3 women who were killed last week, the week before, the week before that and who will be killed next week, the week after and the week after that, by men with whom they have or have had intimate relationships. If you don't play the role of acknowledging the context, then what you are doing, is ensuring that these murders keep happening while people pretend there is no connection - the same way people used to pretend there was no connection between individual black men being murdered by white men. That's not what the BBC should be doing in my opinion and I really do think you should take some steps to educate yourself as an organisation about male violence against women the same way I'm sure you do about racist, anti-Semitic and violence against other marginalised groups so that the first reports are not always so badly-done.
Her: We will, of course continue to cover this story as new information emerges. It is not appropriate for us to speculate about any extent of domestic violence when no such evidence exists. It is simply untrue so far as I can establish to say that where a man kills his wife there is ?without fail? a back history of hidden domestic violence. Our job is to report the facts and context as they emerge and to analyse them without speculating or making assumptions.
Me: All right, the phrase should be "almost without fail" then.
The fact is, when murders like this happen, they happen in a context which you are refusing to acknowledge in a way you don't refuse to acknowledge when it is racist violence. The problem with your statement about reporting the facts and context "as they emerge", is that the BBC, along with the rest of the media, very rarely report the context once it emerges - that of the chronic level of domestic violence; the news story has moved on by then and been replaced by another context-less murder. If it is your job to report the context as well as the facts, then you're simply not doing it well enough at the moment.
At that point, she stopped replying.
Sorry to c&p all that, it's quite long, but I think it shows how much bollocks the excuse of "contextualising" is. They're telling one listener complaining about the lack of context that doing context isn't their job and now they're telling all the other listeners that promoting rape myths is in fact, "context". How over-powering is the smell of bullshit here?