Yesterday, 7 children died in an explosion in a house of worship. The explosion was the result of an accident during work in progress. The people that caused the explosion made a statement regretting the dead children. The damage to the building was minimal.
Did you hear this on the news today? Are you shocked that this tragedy is not getting any attention at all? Does the death of innocent children not merit some recognition in the press?
Chances are you did hear this on the news but as a side note but if you did not hear about it at all would not surprise me.
The incident happened in Afghanistan where a mosque was mistaken for a safehouse for Al Qaeda fighters. The air strike killed 7 children that where present at the time.
To me, this event is even more shocking than the sketch I gave at the start of this post, especially because innocent children were killed on an Allied attack on a civilian target. However, somehow the international press shrugs and likes to pay more attention to more important matters such as the French parliamentary elections.
If this would happen in the US or the Netherlands (in my case), the media would be fighting for best spots to get the most graphic report on the carnage. However, since it is not in the Netherlands but in Afghanistan and does not involve any of our own boys and girls out there, the press can act like they have a collective nose bleed.
I know this is how the press works and it shows what kind of power they have. The world remains on the large ignorant of the tragedies that occur around the world, comfortably staying in our western information bubble, while 7 Afghan families are heartbroken over the senseless loss of their children.
Its not so much thats its over there vs over here.
If this incident had happened during the first weeks of the “Allied” actions in Afghanistan, it would certainly have been much-hyped news, and probably made headlines, and attracted widespread criticism.
Repetition generates disinterest however. Innocent people are killed daily and on great scale by the “Allies” in both Afghanistan -and- Iraq. Its not -news- anymore, and that is the difference.
The press loose interest because they believe the viewing public do. And you know what? The sad truth is that they are mostly right.
To my knowledge it has not been on the front page once that a large group of people (or children for that matter) died in an allied attack on a civilian target. Sure there is the fact that hearing the same old song loses its ‘news value’ but the fact is, that as long as it is not happening to one of ‘us’ it will not make it to prime time. And if they do not report it, this means that to a lot of people it never happened.
The press has tremendous influence these days; they can make or break governments, they create sympathy for a cause or start a ‘public’ outcry. Their power comes not from what they show us, but from what they choose not to show us. To most people they have the power to tell what is happening and thus to some extent defining reality.