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U-Know! Forum » why do the tabloids get away with it? |
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Bonzo the Cat 138 posts |
Edited May 30, 2007, 17:57
May 30, 2007, 17:42
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Absolutely right (both you & pooley), though I don't really think Merrick's point was that the life of a child or other individual is futile in the light of massive killings or deaths occurring elsewhere, nor that one shouldn't do every possible thing to find a missing person. He rather meant that, when it's an adult rather than a child, there's no one who cares. Furthermore, by playing the emo-card and over-dramatising rather than over-exposing (which cannot be possible in a missing child/person case: any exposure is good), the media, apart from their own dubious goals, are not necessarily helping. It makes people more prone to judge by their emotions - and though in and of itself this may be a good thing, it makes negative emotions stronger as well, resulting in people yelling for death penalties, castrations or whatever medieval shit. All in all, it creates an atmosphere of much agitation and little actual progress. And it perpetuates the image of an unsafe, evil society, since people attribute higher probability rates to described rather than experienced events. Especially if these events are negative and if they get huge coverage. True, what if it's *your* kid? Well -and this is the point- it *isn't* your kid. Huge amounts of kids do not disappear. The problem is that, where in a disappearence case maximum exposure is necessary, this same over-coverage and emo-journalism is also deployed in cases where nothing can help - a killing of a kid or such... Combined with this is the increasing attitude of people to say at every dramatic over-covered event "there's a lesson to be learned from this". Well no there isn't - shit happens. And this is something that people should learn to live with or otherwise try to amend right here right now. And then I do not mean the parents of a missing child. But everyone else feeling a crushing pain for the "injustice in this cruel world" - no, please. First of all, this is an isolated event; second, for people worrying about the "condition humaine": stop whining and if you really feel bad about it *do* something. The risk of all these people getting all emotional is that it is shortlived and does not result in deeds, meaning that most of them will just go home and hurt the ones they love as if nothing happened. I'm not advocating lack of empathy here. On the contrary, I'm advocating *true* empathy, which is the acknowledgement of another person's pain without having to resort to imagining what it would feel like when it happened to you. Because that, in the end, is not empathy. I mean, this would mean that I, still without kids, would be unable to imagine the pain of a parent losing their kid? Sounds pretty daft. I'm sorry if this seems overly rational, but people should learn, very consciously and explicitly so, not to hurt others. Emotional upheaval will get them nowhere. arf & meow ps: plus obviously also my earlier point that this way people are led to feel that any "innocent" life is worth more than a "non-innocent" life, while they should finally fucking learn to respect life in any form.
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shanshee_allures 2563 posts |
Edited May 30, 2007, 18:23
May 30, 2007, 18:21
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Well I can sleep at night, even though this riles something in me and others who have children. There's nothing 'false' about that, it's how human beings react to things. You gotta forgive that. Dunno if you've got kids, but it can make your thinking a bit 'fuzzy'! ;-) If there are cries for the 'bastard wot did it' to be castrated and calls for tickets to see the deed perfomed they generally won't come from the more intelligent of us. Take that up with the fools of the world, tell it to them! I can't see any mass hysteria going on. Life hasn't been affected at all, save for the odd moment of contemplation of , 'what if it was my daughter?' But those thoughts don't spur me to go and wear tee shirts with the little girl's face on. Maybe the media have been a bit mawkish here but hey that did happen over an 'adult' too you know - Ken Bigley for one. I agree there is a dangerous right wing rationale that children are innocent and adults are tainted and deserve wrath and hellfire should they fall short but I don't give a shite what these eejits think as it's only about their own sick stupidity. We shouldn't use their agenda as a valid reaction to anything in this damn world, should we? x
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pooley 501 posts |
May 30, 2007, 19:37
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Hi Merrick, Hope you didn't think I was being hard on you. This case, having just become a father scares the shit out of me! You said 'do you think there are people who haven't heard about this case' (paraphrasing, didn't use the quote thing). Not in the uk, but, as has been shown on tv, this case has been horribly under reported on mainland Europe. The pope speaking to this poor girls parents will hopefully rectify this. As for the pretty white girls, I have no idea if these cases are the only ones that get this sort of attention, which would be a disgrace. Or if this is the kind of girl these people go for. But interesting point. Heres hoping she is found, alive and well soon.
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Merrick 2148 posts |
May 30, 2007, 19:58
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pooley wrote: Hope you didn't think I was being hard on you. This case, having just become a father scares the shit out of me! no, nothing hard at all. It's a tough subject to talk about without it coming over that way, too. Anything like me or Bonzo carries an undercurrent of 'hahaha I'm glad it's happened', and anything like what you and Shanshee says has an undercurrent of 'you heartless swine'. But I think we're all bright enough to realise none of us intend any of those implications, quite the opposite. Oh, and on the being a dad thing; good thing you're scared of parenthood! If you weren't then you're probably not taking it seriously enough! But you'll be fine matey. It's that same fear that means you'll focus and you won't drop the ball. And when you're thinking that you're being dreadful at it, just remember that every other parent thinks that about themselves too.
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Ascorpius 82 posts |
May 30, 2007, 21:28
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The tabloid editors (and their lawyers) know exactly what they can get away with and what will sell more rags. I can remember someone tackling the editor of Womans weekly when Lady Di appeared on the cover every other week. The editor was only too keen to admit that they sold 30% more copies when her picture was on the front cover, that is a huge increase and a lot of profit . Tabloids work in the same way and they walk hand in hand with gutter TV. At this point I start to worry about the mind set of the masses. Surely the nation gets the life it deserves. It has been a depressing days reading U-Know.
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Bonzo the Cat 138 posts |
May 30, 2007, 22:04
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as boris johnson would put it, "I could not fail to disagree with you less" - in other words absolutely right-on still, do not underestimate the sheer mass of unintellgent or, since I don't think intelligence says it all, the eejits or plain malvolent. they're not the fool shouting on the corner. they're the unimaginative masses who can't be bothered to think more than on-step thoughts. they're the people wo misunderstood egality and now think that any opinion is as potenially true as any other. the ones who think they finally know what democracy is - the will of the majority innit? well let's fucken hope not. I live in a country where 20% votes extreme right-wing - fascist/nationalist/racist that is. So I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to the bulk of eejit debris looming large on this beautiful world's horizon. I feel like I'm a chicken chest and they're the wrap foil. It's freezing in this cooler. x pok pooook poook arf!
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shanshee_allures 2563 posts |
May 30, 2007, 23:11
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Too true, those eejits do squak some but really, it does take them quite an effort to get out of bed at times. Thanks for the exchange, BTW. x
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