Daily Tele goes to war on bystanders
There’s a remarkably emotive story in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph today.
Bylined to Vikki Campion, she reports on two traffic accidents where “both victims spent their final moments as macabre suburban entertainment”. She goes on:
“They died as mothers in pyjamas and dressing gowns watched on with dozy toddlers. As teenagers strutted around the crime scene, exhilarated, to see tragedy unfold. Sirens and flashing blue-red lights of emergency cars or as one youth says, “the party vans” lured them to the scene. They jostled to find a clearer view. They laughed, maybe at a private joke, and took photographs. The bodies were still in view. Gore porn.”
Then she really gets going:
“The final screams of a dying man, the last breath of a dying woman, in front of a thrilled audience murmuring at the horror of it all, yet sipping from a mug of hot coffee as they move closer to the action. Theirs was a grim end. They died and crowds stared, shocked and open-mouthed, or wide-eyed and jovial and did little to help.”
By the way, this was all in a news story, rather than opinion piece. But it does kind of raise a question. If Vikki wasn’t there, how is she able to give such a powerful description? And if she was, shouldn’t she have been helping out?
What has also been interesting is watching the comments appearing under the article. As one reader suggests, isn’t this sort of article presented in a style similar to the “gore porn” that the Tele chastises? Let’s just even the ledger a touch.
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I don’t know why you are surprised… it is the Tele after all
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