July 7
Posted: Fri 7 July, 2006 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Thoughts 5 Comments »OK, first of all, I’m not saying any of what follows to be denigrating to the people who did suffer in the suicide bombings on July 7th last year. I just want to make that absolutely clear.
However, how does huge media coverage of the memorial events make any difference? And why are we all being pushed into a 2 minute “memorial” silence for it? I don’t have a problem with the various news services showing the memorial events – personally, I think they should be private, for people who were involved and affected by the events, rather than this Diana-esque national outpouring of faux grief, but that’s my view – but I don’t see why entire breakfast programmes and so on had to cover the subject.
Maybe it’s just me, but the BBC and ITV programmes this morning seemed to be glorifying the acts of terrorism – and wasn’t that supposed to be becoming a criminal act? The BBC bleated on earlier this week about how a survey said that 13% of those surveyed thought the bombers were “martyrs” for “the cause”, yet now they’re going through the events in detail, showing how badly everything was affected. Is that not making the bombers, the causes of these events, into – to some minds at least – heroes?
I realise that the London bombs affected a lot of people, and I agree that there should be memorial services, events and the like. Should they be made national, with things like the 2 minute silence? Probably not. Should the memorial services be televised, with people’s grief and memories of the events made public, made into just so many more 3-minute filler items? No.
And how do the people who were involved feel? Surely these news reports, with video footage of the events, just brings it all back to life for them?
I don’t know. I don’t know anyone who was affected by the London bombings. I can’t speak from experience. What I do know is that the media coverage just leaves a really nasty taste in the mouth.
I AGREE wholeheartedly with the statement you made. There has been all sorts of crap banded about recently re: terrorists, we shouldn’t glorify them, in fact quite the reverse, Thatcher gagged Gerry Adams for years, and I agreed with that. Clips keep appearing of so called militants glorifying violent acts in the name of Islam, the papers do a stirling job of distributing their propoganda, it’s time for all this to STOP and reverse this daft trend we find ourselves in.
Last point ….justice isn’t just for the bereaved, it is for all of us who could or would be threatened by these idiots who are supported by an alarmingly large minority of their own ‘islamic’ community. It’s time that British (here’s another massive debate) muslims stood up and were counted because ‘we’ the largely peaceful population are revulsed by Muslims driven to barbarism by their belief in monotheism and do not deserve to live in fear at the hands of those with a thirst for blood.
And “they” the largely peaceful population of Muslims share our want of peace (not suggesting that is what you are saying Andy, just clarifying!).
This mornings BBC Breakfast was sickening. The interview with the bus driver doubly so, as he was nicely led by the interviewer (her wot wore that hideous blouse) into making statements that fit well with the ‘news reportage’.
Although I think the one reason why the terrorists are given space in the media is because it sells. Same reason that many media companies (TV or paper or other) are ‘manufacturing’ news items themselves… take the BBC “stick a car with St. George’s flag on it in a deprived area of Glasgow” stunt recently. Sickening stuff.
Trouble is, where do we go to get real NEWS, the unfiltered, unopinioned stuff? Hello internet!
I disagree. It isn’t a Diana-like faux grief. That was a whole week of people wailing “My life will have no meaning”, with a great deal of Real Life grinding to a halt. It is not unusual to mark an anniversary of death. There is no compulsion (at midday I was walking through a large teaching hospital which continued as normal, as I realised in retrospect). Sure, TV is covering stuff, but TV covers a lot of stuff and doesn’t have to be watched. Of course there is an argument – why mourn the vistims of terrorism when we don’t mourn the victims of road accidents, but if nothing had been done, there would be have been far more complaints.
A friend is singing in a Mozart Requiem at Aldgate this evening. I noticed a Mozart Requiem is also happening at St Martin’s in the Field. I’m not going to either, and no one is being forced to go, but there are worse ways to spend a Friday evening.
Like I said, Gert, I agree that it did have an effect on hundreds, if not thousands, of people. I just disagree that it requires four hours of TV coverage on BBC and ITV, as well as News 24, Sky News, etc. etc. ad nauseam.
And if we are to mourn the victims of terrorism, and/or of bombings, why do we not hear anything on the anniversary of, say, the bombing of the Admiral Duncan in Soho? Or the other “London Bomber” occasions? Is it because they weren’t based in religion, and were instead a hate crime? (Negating, for a moment, the concept of religion-based hate crimes, which is where I’d file the events of 7th July 2005)
The Diana grief was, in some ways, exactly what we had after what the media dubbed 7/7 – a week (if not more) of people saying “I’m never using the tube again”, “My life will never be the same”, “I would’ve died if I’d been going in to London that day, instead of six weeks previously”, etc. etc. again ad nauseam.
It seems to me that today’s media coverage has just caused a resurgence in that – I’ve had four colleagues saying “Oh, I was nearly on that train, except I was on it 24/48/72 hours earlier/later” to me today. My response was unprintable.
I understand both sides of the argument, I’ve lived with this shite for all my life, as I’ve mentioned b4, we (our family) come from Ulster so therefore know something of what goes on ……… I just think that the papers and media in general are doing exactly what the terrorists want, spreading panic etc. I do agree with Lyle that the whole thing of media coverage and over saturation is rediculous …. almost bringing ‘us the people’ into disrepute mainly because we buy and watch the shite. Grief is very personal and something that should be kept within the fold of the family, sorry very traditional viewpoint. I feel extremely uneasy about all of this, we’re kind of responsible in some third party way for a lot of what happens to us because of the ‘power’ of the media.