Current Affairs Missing woman in Lancashire

[tsubaki]

I agree about the idiots and these social media types. But again, even the media which can do an awful lot of harm also do a great deal of good by keeping it in the news and getting through to many folk who just then keep their eyes open. In my own families case, evidence that helped to put away the murderer was found many miles away by a man who spotted items that normally he and others would have ignored, because of the media keeping it in peoples minds…..

The media don't do a great deal of good pete - they should, but they don't.

Tragedies are to them nothing more than an opportunity to create content / fill the paper or the TV show and ultimately make money out of it. All angles of this horror - the tragedy itself, the (probably self-selected and ill-informed) critique of the investigation, the bizarre antics of people who their reporting attracted to the scene and now who is to blame for not finding this body before now - are turned into money after being confidently spewed out by reporters and worst of all commentators who demonstrably have no knowledge or understanding of anything relevant.

If they can't make money out of it then they do not prominently report it, so stories that require effort and skill to expose (eg: local government corruption) are not reported at anywhere like the level they should, except in local papers/websites and the Eye's Rotten Boroughs column.

Of course the victim's status or ethnicity matters too, which is why (to use one example from today) Dan Walker being in a cycling accident that leaves him with minor facial injuries is national news on the BBC website, but a motorbike hitting a family crossing a road outside a mosque in Greenwich (killing an 8 year old boy and putting a ten year old and a 40 year old in intensive care with life threatening injuries) isn't (its the second article on the London site at present).

This is such a dangerous state of affairs, not only at the level of what happens to any of us when (God forbid) a tragedy strikes our families and we get squeezed for anything they can sell, but also for wider politics and the health of the nation as a whole.

They should report the news, honestly and openly, and go after wrongdoing. We, as citizens, need to know about problems so we can ensure they are fixed.

Do they do that? Nowhere near enough, in fact many papers are past the point of being part of the problem themselves (I include the Guardian in that).

 

[Rita_Poon]

channel 5 news live police statement... inc...

It is her body. Confirmed.

That poor family, those poor two little girls.

 

[Connor]

Heartbreaking

 

[trueblue84]

Good on them directly calling out sky and itv. Utter scumbag journos, pestering a family who asked to be given privacy.

 

[carlos21]

Heartbreaking

It is heartbreaking mate.

 

[Harryflashman]

Im not sure if there will be other statements but I think for all the talk of failings the family have come at the media there and pointed the finger right at them and social media

 

[carlos21]

channel 5 news live police statement... inc...

It is her body. Confirmed.

That poor family, those poor two little girls.

I agree with you there mate that's why I am sadly miss her.

 

[Rita_Poon]

Family statement very telling, not least re itv and sky making direct contact last night for comment when the media had been asked to back off. some level of scum them (itv, sky, as well as gb 'news'). its like kelvin mckenzie was just conveniently forgotten about.

 

[carlos21]

Family statement very telling, not least re itv and sky making direct contact last night for comment when the media had been asked to back off. some level of scum them (itv, sky, as well as gb 'news'). its like kelvin mckenzie was just conveniently forgotten about.

I agree with you there mate.

 

[ForeverBlue92]

Good on them directly calling out sky and itv. Utter scumbag journos, pestering a family who asked to be given privacy.

Whilst I agree with the sentiment the
media are as they are because of the public.

If there was no morbid obsession about cases like this then the media wouldn't be acting shamefully in getting round the clock "scoops" to profit from.

I've barely kept up with the story not because I dont care more so why be fascinated in someone else's misery ? Plenty of missing people up and down the country that dont get the same media profile / air time.

Still very sad all the same.

 

[slipstream86]

Ref GB News its entirely right wing and should ideally be banned.

I know this is hard for you to understand, but some things simply transcend politics.

RIP Nicola

 

[Harryflashman]

I honestly don’t

Whilst I agree with the sentiment the
media are as they are because of the public.

If there was no morbid obsession about cases like this then the media wouldn't be acting shamefully in getting round the clock "scoops" to profit from.

I've barely kept up with the story not because I dont care more so why be fascinated in someone else's misery ? Plenty of missing people up and down the country that dont get the same media profile / air time.

Still very sad all the same.

Despite the rise of social media the traditional media drive public interest, it was a missing woman almost an ‘everywoman ‘ that many could relate to . The element of mystery was in part created by the media and repeatedly fed by them even though the plod basically said from day one what had happened , across the media they paraded self proclaimed expert after expert until they found one who picked up the mystery ball and all but guaranteed it was just that a mystery and then wasn’t off the tv or radio for about 2 weeks with his social media exploding and comments driving the conspiracy theorists. Every Tom , dick and Harry whether a talking head , a talk radio presenter or a written journalist critiqued every part of the investigation advising search parameters and exactly where the police had gone wrong and even their sartorial choices .

The public might eat it up but it’s the media that make sure they create a ravenous appetite

 

[steven]

Im not sure if there will be other statements but I think for all the talk of failings the family have come at the media there and pointed the finger right at them and social media

Says a lot that they said it during that statement.

I remember Kay Burley practically salivating at the mouth when she got to ‘break the news’ that April Jones had been killed to two people who were still searching for her. Scumbags.

 

[ford_uk]

Good on them directly calling out sky and itv. Utter scumbag journos, pestering a family who asked to be given privacy.

Was just about to say they've gone all in on ITV and Sky. Sky have switched replies off on their Twitter also.

 

[Harryflashman]

As if to illustrate the point about the media creating a story North Yorkshire police have announced today that they’ve found the body of a man called Matthew Dillon who is in his 40’s left home to go for a drink in town in early January .


This is someone local to Liverpool who’s been missing over a month much to the distress of his family and recovered in the sea . How many people even those who live here know anything about him ?