Loss of common courtesy and decency and privacy
 

Yesterday at the gym, all the TV screens were plastered with the tragic baby Charlie Gard. I have not been following the story but from the headlines I'm aware of what's going on.

However, I really do not need to see a dying baby all over the media. It's sad, it's tragic, and I am terribly sorry for the family, but there's something about having photos or videos of the baby that cheapens the situation.

And then today I discover from the latest headlines there's even more Princess Diana tapes that are going to be shown, despite that they were private and never meant to be displayed to the public and that showing these tapes could reopen sore wounds and undermine a family's attempts to move on with life.

What has markedly changed in my lifetime is the loss of a general acceptance of standards in the media that determined what was acceptable to feature and what wasn't. It's now commonplace to show dead bodies, including of babies and toddlers, on nightly media. A lot of it was over the ME wars and the refuges but it's now become everyday occurrence. It's now commonplace to wring out every last detail of an unhappy marriage of a woman that died twenty years ago.

There's something that coarsens everyone the more we allow this decline of decency and privacy. Are people genuinely demanding this, or is it something that's been imposed on an unwilling public through the insatiable greed of media operators?

Re: Loss of common courtesy and decency and privacy
 

Blame social media, washing one's dirty pants in public seems to be the norm.

I'll keep wearing the tinfoil cap thanks.

Re: Loss of common courtesy and decency and privacy
 

I'm shocked....you went to the gym? ;)

Seriously, I also blame social media, it's ruined the world. It's in fact anti social. So many things are wrong with it. The world now demands ( or thinks it wants? ) instant news / updates / reports that the sanctity of privacy and discretion is no more.

Re: Loss of common courtesy and decency and privacy
 

Rolling television news revolves around three factors - how much news there is in a day, what resources they have to cover the news in a day and it's accepted that viewers dip in and out of news channels so they broadcast accordingly.

On this basis and to answer to your question, it's the networks that have imposed this on the public. However, this format is also accepted by the public (gauged through ratings, media monitoring etc) so there's an element of this is working, so lets keep doing it.

Commercial news networks like Sky News will also be hamming it up as dying babies and secret Diana tapes play well for ratings. Social media and the internet in general has certainly giving up more exposure to what we find un/acceptable but I feel this has only partly hardened us as a society or lowered our moral compass.

Re: Loss of common courtesy and decency and privacy
 

I am someone not fazed easily by "gore, but the clip that this piece refers to is one of the most disturbing things I have seen in my life ...


Woman livestreams crash that kills 14-year-old girl - CNN.com

Re: Loss of common courtesy and decency and privacy
 

LiveLeak and BestGore, some real road kills on there.

Re: Loss of common courtesy and decency and privacy
 

I blame Corbyn.

Re: Loss of common courtesy and decency and privacy
 

It's ****ed pretty much. With respect to the Diana videos (I don't respect her, you know what I mean) I'm surprised the media are going there. They have frighteningly short memories when it comes to their own behaviour. And let's be honest, who gives a flying **** apart from car crash (excuse the pun) rubber neckers and her sons who've only just opened up to how her death screwed their lives up. It's sick.

Re: Loss of common courtesy and decency and privacy
 

But the son's are the ones who are allowing the interviews to be shown....

Re: Loss of common courtesy and decency and privacy
 

Are they? I'll shut up then. :lol: Shows how much info I get by just reading a headline and thinking 'who the **** needs to see that' before going to the next item. ;)

Re: Loss of common courtesy and decency and privacy
 

Washing one's dirty laundry in public...

Re: Loss of common courtesy and decency and privacy
 

I don't know the details but were William and Harry not approached to ask if it was okay to show these videos? They said yes but if they hadn't would that have stopped someone showing them? Would they not be given a hard time by various media channels if they had said no?

Probably damned if they do and damned if they don't.


I agree with DXBtoDOH's post. There is too much in the public domain but that's mainly the result of 24 rolling news as channels need to be filled and people don't want to see hard news all the time. That and a prurient and excessively nosy desire for some people to know about others. Even if you are not interested avoiding it all is hard these days.

I really don't think much of it is healthy, for any of us, either.

Re: Loss of common courtesy and decency and privacy
 

The tabloids and tabloid TV now lay down the agenda for daily discourse. I do my best to switch off and study something serious like "Diary of a Scamp".

Re: Loss of common courtesy and decency and privacy
 

It's a pretty wild ride, don't you think?

25th July
Woke up. Read the news in bed.
Showered after brushing teeth and having a wee.
Got dressed.
Walked to work.
Worked.
Worked some more.
Had lunch.
Worked some more.
Didn't get the pay rise letter that was due yesterday
Worked a bit more.
..............to be continued.

Re: Loss of common courtesy and decency and privacy
 

Regarding the Charlie case, it is quite terrifying how badly it has been misrepresented in ALL of the media. If you have been following the court judgements and the live feeds from the courtroom, what has transpired later in the UK press has been completely different and not at all a true reflection of what has been happening.

The journalism has been shocking.

It just shows you how we are fed whatever it takes to get click bait and make us all believe something is happening when often it is the complete opposite.

GOSH have retained a dignified position whilst having been unable to defend themselves or offer evidence due to patient confidentiality.

Such are the times we live in, where social media and click bait have taken over from proper reporting and professional journalism.