With one pull of the rope, Saddam Hussein – one of the world’s most aforementioned dictators was hung – and within moments the video, audio was broadcast throughout the world for a baying 24 hour news media; and it was at *that* point I decided I would no longer have anything to do with the 24 hour news media.
To me, the photos of the Saddam hanging represents everything that is wrong with the 24 hour news media and represents the total gross hypocrisy, but then it’s okay – because it’s just news and by the middle of next week the editors, the people reading the Autocue don’t care – because they have a new story, a new agenda — well I’m sick of it! News broadcasters report the news, they don’t make the news, write the news or try to give 100% 360° 24/hour coverage on something that is, really, inconsequential.
the last time a major news organisation was covering a non-event was the OJ Simpson trial – during which millions died in Rwanda but the west failed to act preferring not to call it “Genocide”… and where were the 24-hour news media? That’s right, in the OJ trial, making judgements, calling the shots – zooming in, as they always do, into the person’s eyes – regardless of whether they are guilty or innocent – 24 hour news editors will make the decision for you — by simply zooming into the person’s eyes — that way, you *KNOW* the person *WAS* evil… and if he’s found innocent – oh well, that’s fine and dandy – cause you know what, we’ve got some “breaking news” and we’ll do the whole thing again, because you see – “news isn’t news – it’s fear. Fear sells news”.
Yes, Saddam was evil. He gassed his own people, he flaunted UN Resolutions left, right and centre – But by hanging him and displaying it on our screens, I somehow feel we’ve dropped the morale high ground that we, in the so-called, modern Western society claim that we have.
I agree with the many articles on commentisfree, which far more articulate than any one blog post than I can write about the subject; we’ve moved from “we are just because we represent what is right” to being just as savage, just as brutal as the dictator we sort to hang.
In addition to showing the brutal hanging of the dictator, the 24 hour news media mulled over the hanging in every detail.
What really pissed me off about 24/hour news was the whole Ipswich murder affair – when the news broadcasters hired ex-CSI investigators, criminal pathologists, Colombo-like ex-police detectives to try and beat each other over the whole “best coverage”…
Remember how the media poured over every minute detail hiring CSI-like analysts, psychiatrists and other people trying to outdo each other for the best coverage, trying to make it some kind of master stroke event that everyone will remember?
Remember how every single news channel suddenly forgot about this murder and they moved on to the next big thing, and suddenly a new race began? Who’d be the first to put pictures of Saddam’s hanging on live TV – and all for ratings?! Right, the 24 hour news media was in a frenzy – “we must be allowed to compete in this 24-hour news media!” we hear – well I’m sick of it, and I’ve turned off all 24 hour news channels – you can keep your 24 hour news channels and your need to be FIRST with the breaking news — I guess the only thing we don’t have to worry about is whether the BBC, ITV or Sky would have had an auction to present the hanging live on TV on Pay-per-view all in the name of “competition”.
And then, by the middle of next month the news media will have forgotton about it all, just like it forgets every “major” story it likes to cover and move on to the next agenda on their clipboards.
Well you can keep your 24 hour news and your so-called competition to be first with breaking news!
I’m done with 24 hour news!