sensationalise – Observations and Misunderstandings

It appears our police tried a George Floyd. After embracing the Yanks and rejecting Huawei we’ve gone all out and taken the knee. Unfortunately that’s no joke as it involved another man’s neck. To add further insult said man was black. I have experienced the British police, not on a regular basis, but I have, and certainly in no way people from poorer communities, be those black or white, have. They’ve been both friendly and truncheon friendly. I won’t defend them. Having been in foreign lands I’ve also experienced foreign police from numerous cultures and I will hold my hands up, the Brits are not the worst. They are not the best, whatever that is, but there are worse out there.

I’m not sure what I make of this kneeing incident. With everything going on this must be possibly the worst moment to do something like that. I wonder what he was thinking, was he conscious of the action or not. The man was handcuffed and restrained, only the policeman will really know whether he felt scared enough to feel it was warranted. And how often do police officers in this country feel it is a necessary action. I genuinely don’t know. How often do security guards or bouncers outside pubs do similar. What I don’t like about this, apart from the obvious, is how we now go about responding to it as a society.

Protests and riots in America were necessary after George Floyd. There was an outpouring of anger and grief. It was the only way anyone in power would listen and anything would happen. Long term let’s see if it all just get’s forgotten about but in the short it shook society to the core. I imagine there will be protests here, how big I don’t know. He didn’t die thankfully otherwise it would have kicked off already. Maybe it has. The police have already chosen their approach by seemingly condemning the act with the Deputy Met Police commissioner describing it as ‘disturbing’ while reiterating of course that it’s not standard police practice or part of training. There are a lot of things they do that aren’t trained, that doesn’t mean they don’t do them regularly.

But then there was a quote on the BBC by a witness; “I was worried he was going to get executed. That’s just how George Floyd got killed”. If the media could come up with a better quote it would win awards. He wasn’t being executed. Words like that are serious, people get executed by police every day around the world. This was not that and to throw something like that out is not only irresponsible, it’s sensationalist and stupid. It’s also how we appear to react to anything in this day and age of outrage. That’s not one spectrum or another, it’s seemingly everyone. I just hope this is debated seriously and we can have conversations which actually lead to something other than a carpet and a brush. I don’t trust the media not to go wild and sex it up for ratings but I just hope we can ignore that long enough to not use it as some kind of societal endorphin hit. I don’t know how much faith I have in this. We appear too far down the rabbit hole already.

For anyone who has read many of these over the near four months it must have been now since the first one, they will have realised I don’t hold the mainstream media in very high regard. This piece is only going to further the previous sentiment. I was listening to the radio in my car earlier, for the last week or two it has been on in the background when I go anywhere, BBC Radio Five to be specific about the channel, and they were just like ever day it would appear, discussing the Coronavirus. Now this is not a piece on whether the virus is real or how dangerous it is or isn’t, but I would like to focus on it’s coverage in the media.

Last week all they were talking about was how deadly it was and how it was going to kill everybody. They obviously did not say that last point but this was implied by the heightened and sensational coverage they were giving it. There were episodes describing how to wash hands and the necessities of perfect hygiene, some of which I actually mentioned in a piece last week. Today in response to the populace freaking out and stockpiling anything they can from the supermarkets, they held a phone-in on the this issue with people calling in who stockpiled and those who disagreed with it morally. The point was they were being critical of people stockpiling and questioning what was leading people to do it.

Clearly the official line and message they were being told to push was no longer that you’re in danger, run for the hills or fear bacteria everywhere, you’re completely in you right mind to be neurotic; it was now that stockpiling is out of order, unjustified and you’re a bad person for doing so. Phone-in’s it appears are simply ‘Comment’ sections on websites or Twitter for those with ears, of course it is moderated but it helps to be heard if you’re a little sensational. A few people called in to defend their stockpiling, but finally one person called who reminded the presenter that the media must expect people to do this when all they’ve been hearing for the last few weeks is that they’re either going to die or be quarantined for eternity. He called out the very people he was talking to. They brushed it off with some kind of non-answer topic changer and the debate carried on.

It couldn’t have been more to the point. People who suggest this virus may not be as deadly as we’re being told are called irresponsible but we don’t seem to be hearing much about the irresponsibility of a media machine creating panic simply for click-bait and attention. How are people supposed to make sensible and informed decisions on something which could turn out to be deadly for them or their loved ones if they never receive balanced and credible information from what for many people is their only source of news. To sensationalise and then not only act surprised once people panic but be critical of them because it sells more stories and airtime. How people believe a word these charlatans have to say is beyond me. Why I still listen is even further beyond me.

Tag: sensationalise

The Rabbit Hole

A Media Corona Love-In