A change in the media

I havent had computer access so this post is a little bit late, nevermind.

Raoul Moat’s brother has described the scenes that we saw last Friday as a public execution. I have to say in some ways I agree with him.



Twice in the last week I have had conversations with people on this exact subject. These people hadn’t watched the news coverage that night and said that they couldn’t understand this. The guy was a murderer that shot a policeman who sat in his car unarmed and could have killed him. Now I don’t have much sympathy for the man, he did murder a man and attempt to kill two others. However the media coverage that night was quite icky.



I was checking twitter at about 7:30 that night and everyone was talking about the coverage. I had to turn over. So I started to watch. I found viewing uncomfortable yet at the same time I couldn’t stop watching. It was like a movie. But it wasn’t a movie, it was real life and at any point he could have shot himself or a police man. Can you imagine if you were Raoul’s brother, sister or friend? It must have been horrific. Or if you were a sister, borther, wife or husband of one of the policemen or women on duty? Is that something that you would have wanted to see, I imagine not.



The journalists were so excited it was transparent. Who knows what affect this had on procedures? Never before have I seen a news story relayed in this way and with the accompaniment of twitter updates it was completely surreal. Yet I suppose at the end of the day I am just as bad because I sat and watched and tweeted for the best part of three hours.

The coverage was pretty tense and dramatic. I just feel like we have gone to far. Is this what we are to expect everytime there is some sort of police stand off?


Looking back I find myself feeling sorry for the man and his family. Don’t get me wrong he was a murderer who deserved to go to jail for the rest of his life. We don’t know what made him get to that point and now we will never understand. I really feel that having the whole situation relayed by excited news journalists was just in my opinion wrong and inhumane. The actions of the police will be investigated (normal procedure) but I also hope that the journalists take some time to reflect on their actions.