Wednesday 1 February 2012

The tragedy of public lives and private grief

Perhaps, if journalists went back to the good old days of reporting news, not judging it and weighing it, we would not be so titillated by those in the public eye.
Then there are those who create the news:


Perhaps journalists need to refrain from speculating on causes of death.
Perhaps journalists need to present facts, not opinions.
Don't tell me what to think, give me the information and let me know what to think about in the public eye.
Perhaps they need to refrain from public gossip, best left for private conversations.
Hand-in-hand with the false intimacy of television, is the media focus on how they cover news, not just the news.
Best meant for boardrooms, is the discussion on how journalists covered news items.
I depend upon family and friends, to discuss and debate politics, news, current events, tragedies, not journalists. So much harm can be done by speculation, rather than fold hard facts.
It is true in research that once you measure and assess that which you weigh, you change it.
I would rather have a lively discussion with friends, not read the opinions of journalists.
From reporting the news, they are making the news. No one can be objective, yet you can present a story less imbued with gems of flowery adjectives, more with data and information.


CBC.ca
  1. The tragedy of public lives and private grief

    Ottawa Citizen‎ - 1 hour ago
    But it possibly makes life that much more excruciating for Carol Anne Meehan, the television news co-anchor who just lost her husband, Greg Etue. (All of these questions, by the way, came up at a family gathering on the weekend. It is not to gossip; but to make sense of the world.)



3 comments:

Megan said...

When experts say preventable deaths should be examined for lessons, they mean respectfully and by experts, with the ultimate goal of preventing future deaths. Not through idle gossip with the ultimate goal of having something to talk about over coffee.

Ugggghhhh...

Red said...

I agree with your main premise that people should be allowed to grieve in private. There are examples of a family spokesman asking that the family be left to grieve.
However, on the other topic you move to I am split down the middle. There are good journalists and bad journalists. Then there are the readers. Readers also have responsibility for what they read and how they interpret it. Some of the extreme right wing stuff you find is easy for me to judge. For others they may be convinced that position is right and acceptable.

Linda said...

I enjoy your efforts to make us think! I have often lamented about the insensitivity of some journalists, but we are also to blame when we read, look, and listen to them. Hard call, this.