Trials and tribulations
There are two trials going on here at the moment.
The first is a bloke who is suing the state on the grounds that he was falsely accused of a murder he claims he didn't commit. Now whether he committed the murder or whether he has been falsely accused has become a matter of supreme indifference to me. The trial is boring and tedious in the extreme and the reporting is frankly an enormous waste of airtime and paper. It seems to have been running for years and I just wish it would go away.
The second one I find a little more disturbing.
Again it involves murder. A bloke is accused of murdering a girl and the claims are coming out that not only did she like kinky sex but was begging to be killed.
Of course the meeja have latched onto this like a Rottweiler onto a bone. They delight in the discoveries of handcuffs and chains. They drool over discoveries of Spandex suits and whips. They also love repeatedly telling us that the victim was into self-harming, kinky sex and was suicidal. I gather from their accounts that her lift didn't quite go to the top floor.
I find all this lurid fascination rather sickening. I really and truly don't want to know all these sordid details, and skip articles about the trial and mentally switch off during news programmes. Why do they have to be so fucking graphic in their delight at a poor girl's misfortunes?
It's the parents and the family of the girl that concern me. How would you feel if your daughter's most intimate life was headline news? How would you feel about Joe Public drooling and salivating over your family's dirty underwear? How would you like the world to be told that your kin is of low intelligence, is suicidal and is begging to be killed during a sex act? It is distasteful and sordid in the extreme and the case should be held in private, or at the very least reported with tact and dignity.
Won't someone please think of the parents?
Very true, GD. There is actually no need for anyone but those closely involved to know about the intimate details of the case. It's totally unnecessary. The prurience of the press in their drive to sell copy is really rather disturbing. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it is the cause of many of the societal problems we see today. It's not just cases like this, where the attitude is that sex sells; but also in many other areas, such as the subjects that often come under discussion here on this blog about diet, smoking, drinking, terrorism etc etc.
The MSM delights in broadcasting any old garbage if they think it will grab the interest of the easily gulled, and by doing so they create great swathes of people who become convinced of the righteousness of what they've read, and lend their weight to the 'cause', to the detriment of all around them. The classic example was the paediatrician who had bricks lobbed through his (her?) windows during the time the tabloids were starting on their paedophile witch-hunts.
Yes, the irresponsible MSM has a lot to answer for. Power without responsibility is a dangerous thing.
Grandad I totally agree. Ive seen this on every tabloid front page on the way to work every morning. Whatever the girls fault for fuck sake let her rest in peace.
Justice should be done and it should be seen to be done, but this constant and morbid raking over of the evidence should be kept within the confines of the court. If you really have to wallow in the gory details then get off your arse and get yourself down to the court.
I didn't watch the news tonight but flicked past it at one stage and they were waffling on about the Bailey case yet again. I would bet the shop that they had already covered in the minutest details the other trial, and I'm very happy I missed that.
The Southern ring road down here was snarled up with a two/three mile tailback yesterday and I found myself in the middle lane in first gear for twenty-five minutes. The cause of all of this was a four car accident …………. ON THE OPPOSITE CARRIAGEWAY.
Rubber necking I believe it is called but the idea seems to be a perverse delight in seeing someone else in great distress. The more blood and gore the better. The prurient fawning over poor Martina's tale of woe comes from the same defective gene I suggest.
Some details revealed from both of these trials are ghastly, but they indicate aspects of contemporary Irish life that we will need to think about philosophically when the trials have concluded. Behind all the Bord Failte wholesome images of Ireland there are regrettably many nasty undercurrents that as a society we will have to deal with full frontally. I know too that the newspapers boost readership statistics by reporting unexpurgated daily accounts. Fact is that for every disgusted reader there are several other readers who love to lap up.the sordidness.
Some Irish like to think of this as The Island of Saints and Scholars, but the rest of us know that we are just as ordinary as anyone else.
The Island of Sinners, Squeeze, Sleaze and Political Fleas?