Media’s replaying of gory Brussels terror attack footage is mercenary

While one can understand the legitimate, though grim, newsworthiness of the terrorist-bombing in Brussels, there is a ‘jackal’ approach to much of the media coverage (both broadcast and print).

Feasting off the carnage, with repeated replaying of gory footage, plus transmitting endless interviews and stories of people (mostly Irish) who might have witnessed or experienced something in the chaos, is weak and cheap.

The ‘mediarazzi’ are at it big time.

Their voyeuristic preoccupation sadly trumps the natural and mature portrayal of such terrible events.

The various media outlets are vying with each other, simply (ab)using the story and its victims as pawns in their commercial jousts.

It is right and just to report such disturbing incidents, but they don’t have to become trite ‘fillers’ designed to engage the lowest-common-denominator morbidity quotients of the public.

The terror in Brussels is, for sure, a challenging scenario, and frightening because it has happened (again) in a capital city near home-base. But the tawdry, vacuous reportage does little for serious assimilation of the wider contextual considerations.

Let’s try to establish worthiness in this, and any other, similar situation that, unfortunately, may materialise.

Jim Cosgrove,

Chapel Street,

Lismore,

Co. Waterford