Tasteless Publishing?

kc66

What do you think of newspapers publishing details of the death of your average Joe public? I'm sure this happens quite a bit, but I just noticed it recently when it happened to somebody I know.
There was one tabloid report in particular about what he apparently did the last few days leading up to his death and the circumstances surrounding his death. He is a decent bloke from an average decent family and they dont need any more sh!t which is all the paper printed. It is a hard enough time grieving for a child without having to deal this.
Its a bit different if it is somebody famous because then the public will demand to know.
We all know the media are ruthless but can they not draw the line somewhere?

santosubito

It all depends. What were the circumstances of your friend's death? Was it a murder? What the paper write about him?
Generally speaking, for example, no papers write about suicides and they certainly don't name them, even the tabloids.
But I do know that the Mirror last week wrote about a man who killed himself.
He has relatives charged charged with murder and I think that's why they broke the convention. But, for me, that's no excuse.
But generally, papers don't really write about sudden deaths unless it is someone well known or is murder/manslaughter. Oh, and they also name most car crash victims, unless the family specifically tell the Gardai they don't want their loved ones named.

kc66

It was a sudden death. He didn't commit suicide and it wasnt a murder. He wasn't known to the public. It wasnt a car crash either. He has a pretty well known relative but thats no reason. I see he is mentioned in todays paper again but not the sh!t they were saying in the Mirrror during the week. Theres absolutely no need for them to write about him at all. Is it a slow time for news or something? If so, there was no need to bullsh!t about what is not known.

segadreamcast

kc66 wrote:

What do you think of newspapers publishing details of the death of your average Joe public? I'm sure this happens quite a bit, but I just noticed it recently when it happened to somebody I know.
There was one tabloid report in particular about what he apparently did the last few days leading up to his death and the circumstances surrounding his death. He is a decent bloke from an average decent family and they dont need any more sh!t which is all the paper printed. It is a hard enough time grieving for a child without having to deal this.
Its a bit different if it is somebody famous because then the public will demand to know.
We all know the media are ruthless but can they not draw the line somewhere?

Er, who's famous, who isn't? Who draws the line? Who chooses what goes in and what doesn't? Fair enough, editors should decide on the grounds of taste and decency how the death should be portrayed - but deaths do have to be reported, it's still news, no matter how personally you feel about it.

santosubito

Was it Cian Dempsey?
If it was, I Can't be a hypocrite, I was slightly involved in chashing the story because I speak Spanish.
If it was, I'm sorry.

kc66

santosubito wrote:

Was it Cian Dempsey?
If it was, I Can't be a hypocrite, I was slightly involved in chashing the story because I speak Spanish.
If it was, I'm sorry.

It was him. chashing? Why are you apologising? I don't understand your post. "I can't be a hypocrite"?? There is too much speculation and hearsay in that article and when the results come back from the autopsy they could be in trouble? Maybe not. Anyway I dont want to go into any details on a public forum.

leeroybrown

NoelRock wrote:

Er, who's famous, who isn't? Who draws the line? Who chooses what goes in and what doesn't? Fair enough, editors should decide on the grounds of taste and decency how the death should be portrayed - but deaths do have to be reported, it's still news, no matter how personally you feel about it.

I think it comes down to three things: (1) Will it sell papers, (2) Will there be legal trouble (3) Will there be regulatory trouble.

At the end of the day people love rubber necking at the misfortune of others.

Sparky

i do believe its down to the whole selling papers issue, and it is tasteless, this same crap happened when Liam Lawlor was killed, the papers wrote utter crap and jumped the gun before they got thier facts right, and because of a public disgrase of what they wrote, they were forced to apoligise about the matter.

fly_agaric

leeroybrown wrote:

I think it comes down to three things: (1) Will it sell papers, (2) Will there be legal trouble (3) Will there be regulatory trouble.

At the end of the day people love rubber necking at the misfortune of others.

IMO, the papers will probably calculate that they can afford to be more cavalier when printing stuff about joe-citizen as joe-citizen and his relatives may not have the resources/power to make them pay for it if they get things wrong. It's depressing.

monument

kc66 wrote:

What do you think of newspapers publishing details of the death of your average Joe public? I'm sure this happens quite a bit, but I just noticed it recently when it happened to somebody I know.

Yes, it does. Read any paper from the Times to the Star and there's loads of stuff about the "your average Joe public". You’ll notice that when any Irish person goes missing/dies/is killed abroad it’s usually reported one way or another in the national press.

What exactly was the context of "the sh!t they were saying in the Mirrror"?

santosubito wrote:

I was slightly involved in chashing the story because I speak Spanish.

So, do you work for the Mirrror?

santosubito

No, I don't. But several papers were chasing the story.

kc66

monument wrote:

Yes, it does. Read any paper from the Times to the Star and there's loads of stuff about the "your average Joe public". You’ll notice that when any Irish person goes missing/dies/is killed abroad it’s usually reported one way or another in the national press.

But do they go out of their way to dig up (or make up) dirt on the person too? This article gave facts which would be nearly impossible to prove. I'm not saying they were totally wrong because obviously I wasn't there. I would like to hear how these details came about. Maybe santosubito can shed light on that? Or did you just do the translation?

santosubito

A freelance journalist in Spain called Gerard Couzens provided the copy to all papers about the alleged cocaine and drugs. Came from the Guardia Civil, I believe.

Brooks

santosubito wrote:

A freelance journalist in Spain called Gerard Couzens provided the copy to all papers about the alleged cocaine and drugs. Came from the Guardia Civil, I believe.

cian was my cousin... I have to say the media coverage of his death was disgraceful.. one particular journalist posed as a mourner trying to get into the wake.. where he was laid out.. presumably to get some gorey pictures...
On the day of the funeral the church and the surrounds were full of journos.. scumbags.. all the gaa boys were blocking their views of the family...

People should be let mourn in peace, there is nothing to gain from having pictures of a mother grieving her son on the front page of a newspaper..