Sorry for the barrage of disturbing images. I was looking through Newseum today and was shocked to see the way that the news about the Virginia Tech killer's information sent to NBC was presented on the front page of three international publications. Now granted, these three publications are tabloids, so they're definitely trying to be more sensational in nature than more reputable publications. But still, I looked through all the tabloids in the U.S. as well, and not a single one of them published any pictures of the killer on the front page - all ran some sort of hommages to the victims or pictures relating to the backlash AGAINST the NBC releasing the pictures/video of the killer. So why would these three papers - The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Australia), The West Australian (Perth, Australia), and Kleine Zeitung - Klagenfurt (Klagenfurt, Austria) - think it's OK to publish these very disturbing pictures on the front page? I understand that they're somewhat removed from the shootings, but still - isn't there a line of decency that's cleary being crossed here? I wonder if any of these publications will experience backlash, if if they're too far removed from the tragedy in the U.S. for anyone to care. To me, it just seems like journalism at its worst.
2 comments:
I totally agree. I get so sick of these "after-the-fact" or "investigative" reports that go on for weeks after a big news story like this. It's insensitive toward the victims and also risks reader fatigue, just to sell a few extra papers.
Maybe it's the voyeur in me, but I was captivated by those images, and don't really have a problem with them being used. Of course, if I had a personal connection to the tragedy, I may feel much differently about them.
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