STRANGER pass this place with gravity,
John Brown is filling his last cavity.
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GOOD morning. We thought a spoonful of gravitas might help the Monday morning medicine go down; the above is inscribed upon the grave of a well-known dental surgeon in England.
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WOULDN’T it be pleasant to arise each Monday and be greeted with positive headlines and a radio broadcasting nothing but good cheer and warm and fuzzy sentiments? Probably not – it would end up being rather like surviving on a diet of chocolate; very sickly and fattening to boot.
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THOSE thoughts were prompted by a brush with an old friend who accused the media of printing only gloom and doom. We have just two answers to that: We don’t make the gloom and doom, some of you do; we merely report what you’ve been up to. Second – if some of you behaved yourselves better, we’d have nothing bad to report.
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AND wouldn’t that be boring. We can guarantee that sales would plummet overnight and readership would evaporate. No, the truth is that most of us like to revel in a mild crime story, even if we tell each other how dreadful it is. Only when such stories cover crimes that none of us can stomach does the shock and horror factor kick in.
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THEN come the points of view of those who support and those who are highly critical of the use of graphic pictures in the newspaper. Two attitudes are hotly defended and both are legitimate. First, and the one we generally follow — by publishing such pictures we hope to deter others from committing crimes for which the terrible death pictured is the final and increasingly most likely outcome.
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THE second viewpoint takes into account the relatives of the dead criminal and the generally distasteful nature of such pictures. Some regard the appearance of dead bodies in the paper as morally unsound and unethical. We would be interested to know what you think. Send us a line or two at deenesenolis@hotmail.com and we’ll be happy to publish your views.
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EPITAPH of Sir John Strange: “Here lies an honest lawyer – and that is Strange.” Cheers!
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- Dee Nesenolis