I was reading my headlines the other day, taking a pulse of things as I like to do. In one feed that I was scrolling through I came across a headline that described a truly dreadful tragedy. As a result of what happened a group of families and friends somewhere out there was in an agony of sorry from which they will never recover. The story of what happened will be handed down and remembered for many generations. My heart went out to them, whoever and wherever they are.
I dont know because I didn’t look. Didn’t need to and didn’t want to. The headline said it all.
But why did the editors include such a dreadful story? Was it to alert us of a defective and dangerous product that is currently on the market? Or was it to remind us to be on our guard against the inborn thoughtlessness or carelessness that lurks within us all.
No. This was just a dark, freak tragedy. An occurrence from which there is almost no defence.
But the editor decided to put it in my head and there is festers. Did he think it would appeal to me or edify me? Or was it just clickbait like a sexually explicit picture.
Why would the editor invite me to be a spectator of a family’s misery with whom I have no connexion, as though I am in a theatre with a bucket of popcorn?
It of course speaks to the dark or morbid curiosity that by nature exists within us all, in all ages, that at all times can be inflamed. That is the nature of things.
But to the point, it speaks to the values of today’s media, and its indifference to its responsibility to uphold public standards of decency. Or perhaps today, your typical journalist’s lack of awareness that there is such a thing as decency.
M.C. Atkins
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