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Gaddaffi (ii)
Friday, October 21st, 2011 02:47 pmTo quote a friend of mine over on Farcebørk this morning:
And I submit that pretty much encapsulates the situation we find ourselves in.
I know Gaddaffi was a madman, I know he was dangerous and that he was responsible for sponsoring terrorism, for murdering thousands and that he had the most appalling dress sense, but the method of his demise was bad enough without turning it into an unseemly media circus. I can even understand, though hardly approve of, what happened to him and how he died. Ideally there would have been some sort of trial (I suppose the skeptics would say “show trial”) and at least the illusion of the process of law, but given the participants, the circumstances, the place and the time, it is hardly surprising that he was shot and his corpse dragged through the streets.
None of this excuses the reaction of the media, which surpasses anything that followed the death of Bin Laden. Maybe the difference is simply that the US didn’t give the media anything to work with so they had nothing to reel themselves in from.
I don’t know.
What I do know, is the sudden crowing over and publication of photographs of a barely recognizable bloodied corpse doesn’t come close to civilized behaviour, nor does it even approximate justice. It does look like a fair facsimile of mob vengeance, though.
Wow, today's front pages are repulsive. I don't care how bat-shit crazy a psychopath he was, gloating over a bloody corpse just lowers us all.
And I submit that pretty much encapsulates the situation we find ourselves in.
I know Gaddaffi was a madman, I know he was dangerous and that he was responsible for sponsoring terrorism, for murdering thousands and that he had the most appalling dress sense, but the method of his demise was bad enough without turning it into an unseemly media circus. I can even understand, though hardly approve of, what happened to him and how he died. Ideally there would have been some sort of trial (I suppose the skeptics would say “show trial”) and at least the illusion of the process of law, but given the participants, the circumstances, the place and the time, it is hardly surprising that he was shot and his corpse dragged through the streets.
None of this excuses the reaction of the media, which surpasses anything that followed the death of Bin Laden. Maybe the difference is simply that the US didn’t give the media anything to work with so they had nothing to reel themselves in from.
I don’t know.
What I do know, is the sudden crowing over and publication of photographs of a barely recognizable bloodied corpse doesn’t come close to civilized behaviour, nor does it even approximate justice. It does look like a fair facsimile of mob vengeance, though.
