Death as entertainment
I came across an article yesterday about Nixzmary Brown. Her mother and step-father and charged with killing her. Specifically, the step-father is accused of killing this little girl “with a blow to the head while punishing her for stealing some yogurt.”
I could go on for days about the senseless cruelty this girl was subjected to, but what struck me was the callousness of the news site containing the article. There was a picture of this poor girl captioned with, “Authorities say Nixzmary Brown, who died on Jan. 11, 2006, was bound with tape, tethered to a chair and forced to use a cat litter box.” Underneath this was a list of “Related Slideshows.” And what, according to wcbstv.com, is related to a story of a child tortured and killed?
- Auto Show ‘08 Rolls Into Detroit
- Top 10 Most Popular Dog Breeds In U.S.
- Openly Gay Celebrities
- Celebrity Bump Watch
- Keira Knightley: Then & Now
- Jessica Simpson: Then To Now
- Hooray For The Red, White And Zooom!
- 2008 Presidential Hopefuls
- Zoo Babies: Cuteness Unleashed
To the side was an ad asking if I was paying too much for my car insurance. Below the text of the article were more links to stupid crap, followed by more ads.
We need to keep in mind when reading news, or watching it on TV, that they’re business is not news, but making money. And that money comes primarily through ads. So if they need to entertain us with stories of which actresses are pregnant, or try and shock us with stories about murdered kids, so be it. Death gets the views, too.
And I know: they have to pay the bills. But basic human decency should override that at some point. If you were to ask them why they didn’t publish pictures of the girl’s murdered body at the crime scene, or images of the Nixzmary’s dead, naked body on the autopsy table, do you know what the likely reply would be?
“That would be in bad taste.”
As if they know. As if any of us do. Afterall, they wouldn’t puts these ads up unless they thought we would be likely to buy insurance after reading about torture and murder.
Screenshot of the article in case it goes away.
