Appaling journalism... please permit me a rant...
On urban75 today, i had my attention drawn to an article from the Sunday Express.
This article was about the survivors of the Dunblane massacre, now 18 years old. Under the title, of 'Sick messages shame memory of classmates'... yes, the reporter had tracked the kids down on facebook etc, and dragged them through the mud for such offences as:
- posting of photos of themselves 'making rude gestures'
- having fun and going out for a drink and talking about it
- not mentioning on their profiles that they experienced a horrific massacre 14 years ago
And, most unforgivably of all:
- posting pictures of themselves... 'enjoying university life'
Oh, the horror!!! The shamelessness!
Let me count the infuriating, unnecessary manipulativeness of that article:
1) 'Emotional fascism' - everyone should feel the way the media expects them to feel, dammit. Or else they're clearly insensitive and should be socially ostracised.
2) Victim culture - victims of trauma have no right to claim an identity other than as a victim. They ought to be traumatised for the rest of their lives and let the world know it
3) Demonisation of kids - One local commented 'can these really be genuinely the same young people?' - uhm, yes, they were four when it happened, they're now 18. Maybe some of them were little scrotes when they were and are much nicer now. Typical Express/Mail that the whole concept that kids talking about drinking, posing in photos and having fun is portrayed as clear signs of our off-the-rails, out of control youth! Quake in terror, oh denizens of suburbia.
It's not the kids who are making old people scared to go outside, it's the bloody Express.
Anyway, see the blood-boiling idiocy for yourselves: http://i41.tinypic.com/2up2tmt.jpg
This article was about the survivors of the Dunblane massacre, now 18 years old. Under the title, of 'Sick messages shame memory of classmates'... yes, the reporter had tracked the kids down on facebook etc, and dragged them through the mud for such offences as:
- posting of photos of themselves 'making rude gestures'
- having fun and going out for a drink and talking about it
- not mentioning on their profiles that they experienced a horrific massacre 14 years ago
And, most unforgivably of all:
- posting pictures of themselves... 'enjoying university life'
Oh, the horror!!! The shamelessness!
Let me count the infuriating, unnecessary manipulativeness of that article:
1) 'Emotional fascism' - everyone should feel the way the media expects them to feel, dammit. Or else they're clearly insensitive and should be socially ostracised.
2) Victim culture - victims of trauma have no right to claim an identity other than as a victim. They ought to be traumatised for the rest of their lives and let the world know it
3) Demonisation of kids - One local commented 'can these really be genuinely the same young people?' - uhm, yes, they were four when it happened, they're now 18. Maybe some of them were little scrotes when they were and are much nicer now. Typical Express/Mail that the whole concept that kids talking about drinking, posing in photos and having fun is portrayed as clear signs of our off-the-rails, out of control youth! Quake in terror, oh denizens of suburbia.
It's not the kids who are making old people scared to go outside, it's the bloody Express.
Anyway, see the blood-boiling idiocy for yourselves: http://i41.tinypic.com/2up2tmt.jpg
