Someone, out there....
 

Please, someone out there. tell me that I am not the only person who found the news coverage of the awful events in London yesterday, intrusive.

I know it was a media circus, but was it REALLY necessary to show us the poor unfortunate man being wheeled into a London hospital by the paramedics, with a Doctor perfoming cardiac compressions (heart massage)....the camera zoomed in and he was clearly identifiable.
I just hoped that his loved ones were spared that picture.

The news teams seemed like vultures....waiting to see who could show us the most shocking pictures.

OK....the news needs to be reported, but have we lost all sensitivity......?

Re: Someone, out there....
 

the press are vultures margaret,and yes i would not like too have been that poor guys relative

Re: Someone, out there....
 

I understand that showing the people who were victims in all this is kinda morbid and intrusive, but I don't think thats why the news stations show those images. To me they show them so we can understand the true horror and effect that these kinds of actions have on innocent people.

Re: Someone, out there....
 

I believe that the media could be a little bit more reserved and keep the photography (video included) to a discreet distance. I think they don’t help matters when they ask stupid questions of people who have more important things to do.

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the bottom line is g78 that the media are more interested in the next BIG scoop to sell papers than peoples sensitivity,if you had been on the wrong end of press sensationalism i think you may change your view.

Re: Someone, out there....
 

Do not presume what would or would not change my views.

Re: Someone, out there....
 

I did not need to see the suffering of humanity......the sight of the bus with its roof peeled back was enough to make me understand what barbarity had taken place.
Don't the injured, the dying and the maimed have any right to dignity.......?

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Not to mention the fact that their relatives should be spared the sight of someone they love in such a grave condition.
If a man were taken into A&E like that, in the normal course of events, do you really think they would be allowed to watch the attempts to resuscitate......it is bad enough to lose someone but to have their final moments captured on video as a 'newsworthy' event beggars human decency. I was stunned and appalled.

Re: Someone, out there....
 

I have to agree that the insensitivity shown by the press worsens every time there is a disaster. It's all well and good reporting facts, that's their job, but it does seem like they try to play on people's grief. Video footage of the injuries should have been taken from a discrete distance. I'm sure that they have even more shocking coverage that they are not permitted to show. No doubt this footage will end up on the internet, as these things do tend to leak out.

Was it not Lord Reith, the first director general of the BBC, who in about 1926 said that their purpose was to 'inform, entertain and educate.' There are ways of informing and educating without using shock tactics and intruding on people's grief in their darkest hours...

Re: Someone, out there....
 

It contravenes all patient confidentiality which medical and nursing staff work so hard to protect.

Re: Someone, out there....
 

I agree, and the fact that my newspaper this morning had 33 pages of pictures before it got to any other story, I also found distasteful.

Re: Someone, out there....
 

i think its right to cover the story but the ammount of coverage it is getting is ridiculous

yes it was awfull but the terrorists and their supporters are been given free publicity 24 hours a day at the moment and must be cheering every time its shown on tv

also dragging poor soles who have just been bandaged up and in shock before a tv camera and asking them to re live the whole thing is pretty insesitive

Re: Someone, out there....
 

Sadly all though we need news coverage, the media does seem to 'delight' if that is the right word, in blanket coverage sensationalist news.

I agree with the showing over and over of the poor souls being wheeled into hospital was in poor taste, especially while people yesterday were still at a loss to find out what had happened to loved ones.

Re: Someone, out there....
 

I am not complaining about the story being covered Chav.......I just feel that it could have been done to afford more privacy and dignity to those who had been killed.

do these news teams not have families....? I think some of the film coverage was very intrusive.

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I am not a 'bleeding heart' type of person.......I worked as a nurse for nigh on 30 years and saw many harrowing sights.......I don't feel that the public is served well by this kind of journalism, which relies heavily on the fact that gruesome stuff grabs the punter.

Re: Someone, out there....
 

We live in the media age.

CCTV, mobile cam phones, small video cameras.

I must admit although fascinating to watch the horror of the immediate moments after the exposion on the tube on the news, l did wonder at the motive of the person who thought to film it. I hope the clip was given to the news agencies and not sold.

Re: Someone, out there....
 

I can't imagine ever being in that situation and actually thinking of getting my phone out for any other reason than to contact my loved ones to say I was ok. I have to admit that I suffer terribly from morbid curiosty and was glued to the news reports but even I thought to show some of the pictures was out of order

Re: Someone, out there....
 

I can understand the need to provide information and I realise (from actually speaking to people yesterday who were desperate to know what was happening and couldn't get to a TV) that people want to know as much as possible as soon as possible. Someone even asked why Sky wasn't showing the bus immediately and I pointed out that perhps the injuries of people were so severe that they were being sensitive and realising it was too much to foist onto people.

It was totally insensitive to show close ups of the injured people when their friends and relatives could have been watching and I dread to think how they must have felt on seeing them. I did notice later that they "pixelled out" faces. If they really felt they had to show us the injured that was the very least they should have done from the beginning.

They don't seem to be able to make the distinction between information and sensationalism.

Re: Someone, out there....
 

I agree Willow, they are so insensitive, I like to know the facts but I dont want to see bodies or injured people on tv, especially before their families are made aware.

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i know what you mean Garinda.......I really didn't want to watch the coverage yesterday, but kept getting drawn back to it.
It almost felt like voyeurism.

Re: Someone, out there....
 

you was not the only person who found the news coverage to be awful yesterday, we all did

Re: Someone, out there....
 

I'm so glad it is not just me.......I thought that maybe I was being a bit hyper-sensitive about the whole thing.

Re: Someone, out there....
 

no your not IT WAS SAD , and its will be for a long tme ....

Re: Someone, out there....
 

The pictures were terrible and it certainly wasn't something I wanted my 7 year old to see. The whole coverage was disgraceful. I thought some of the questions put to the victims were also really quite unnecessary & at times stupid. one I heard was 'when the bomb went off on the train did people panic?' what sort of question is that?

Re: Someone, out there....
 

The sad truth of the matter is that the media in general seem not be able to make the distinction between informing, educating and entertaining any more. The dividing lines are blurred by the race for ratings. I found it shocking that all the main TV channels were publicly appealing for pictures from witnesses from quite early on. The BBC News website features a collection of pictures sent in as a result of this appeal. And of course it all goes to enhance the effect of the murderers actions - spread news of the terror - show everyone just how bad we can make things - Sign up to our limited vision of the world now! Or this could be coming to your town.

The need to report and inform treads a fine line between freedom and unwitting propaganda, it seems, sadly, that this is a line that the media are increasingly blind to.

Re: Someone, out there....
 

yes, A-B you are absolutely right.......this terror group got 24 hours of free and unlimited publicity/propaganda...............I am sure that we could have had half hourly bulletins in text running across the bottom of the screen.......or certainly something much more discrete.
As you say the race for ratings is what motivates........I feel that the coverage on all stations was equally bad.... though I think we expect a bit more from the Beeb.