Mirror apologises for using footage broadcast by Christchurch murderer – then puts a large image of murderer as child on next day’s front page
The notionally-left Daily Mirror caused outrage on Friday when it played footage of the Christchurch massacre broadcast by the killers on its website. The paper realised its error and deleted the footage – and its editor-in-chief publicly apologised:
Embley did not respond to a question from Labour activist @ToryFibs asking whether his publication would donate to charity the advertising revenue generated by views of the video.
But many are questioning the depth of the paper’s contrition after a preview of its Saturday front page was published – showing a large picture of the killer as a young boy, described as ‘angelic’, but showing nothing about the victims of the terrorist, Islamophobic atrocity:
The reaction was immediate:
The paper’s former editor called the decisions “appalling insensitivity”:
Many are even swearing never to purchase ‘that rag’ again. A campaign has begun on social media to raise awareness of the identities and stories of the individual victims.
SKWAWKBOX comment:
‘Appalling’ is right. In the context of the continual demonisation of Muslims by the right-wing media and endemic Islamophobic racism among the Tories, it’s unconscionable for a supposedly left-wing newspaper to ape the worst of the right-wing press by monetising and minimising the deaths of so many innocent Muslim worshippers to focus on the killer’s ‘angelic’ childhood.
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Remind me- Kevin Maguire the Mirror’s associate editor did condemn the editorial standards of the Canary and accused it of “clickbait” journalism just a matter of a few weeks ago. I thought at the time that this was rather rich coming from a Mirror journalist.
Despite the apology this incident yet again provides a prime example of how that “comic” of a newspaper has always operated.
Why no mention of Online Mail coverage, which was even worse. ?
What’s the point re the mail? It’s a fascist rag .it’s predictable. The point is I think we expect better from the mirroe
The Mail gave detail of how to download the video and the gunman’s
‘Manifesto ‘
The report has appeared widely :-
https://www.facebook.com/959780427477483/posts/1972866022835580?sfns=mo
If the Media is to prove it’s worth anything more than spit , it shouldn’t publicise anything personal about this monster ! He did it for his diseased ego ! Deny that conceit, render him personally impotent !
Just his name is sufficient ! He’s NOT human ! Don’t humanise him !
Tom Watson on LBC blamed social media and was going to get the Government to censor or regulate Facebook,despicable to use the deaths of so many innocents as a backdrop for a political platform . Worth looking at the comments,many came to the defence of our free media and expressed heartfelt sadness for the victims , Sky news ran stories on this all day including horrific footage in the way of stills from the video with an commentary describing each still. Frankly the media coverage has been appalling ,in NZ the coverage focused on the victims the Tory media here focused on the terrorist https://twitter.com/Antonineone1/status/1106523940732764160
Stopped reading the Daily Mirror a long time ago. It’s a pseudo-left rag.
Typical corporate media — if the criminal is black he’s a thug, if he’s brown he’s a terrorist, and if he’s white he’s either a “troubled individual” or a “good guy who suddenly snapped”. Disgusting.
On the question of whether the results of such attacks should be shown on TV… who here thinks that’s for our benefit?
Who here, seeing the dismembered bodies of innocent civilians after a drone strike or any other military action, would go down the pub to celebrate our armed forces?
A few morons may indeed be incited by seeing them to repeat such outrages as the NZ attack but the vast majority would lean more toward stricter gun control, avoidance of war & better education of the young if the graphic results of those actions were seen.
The reason we don’t see the reality on TV is to keep us compliant – nothing to do with saving us from nightmares or preventing copycat attacks.
Duh.
ps. My post wasn’t an argument for showing dickhead’s video – assuming it’s filmed like what I believe is called a “first-person shooter” video game – it was an argument for a “first-person first-responder” video by medical personnel.