People love it when you lose…
Kick 'em when they’re up, kick 'em when they’re down…
Reporters and journalists have special power to direct public attention. Ideally, they direct public attention to the people who are the subjects of their stories, but sometimes they abuse their power to direct that public attention to themselves.
I believe the ethics from the society for professional journalists is clear on this.
Minimize Harm
Ethical journalists treat sources, subjects and colleagues as human beings deserving of respect.
Journalists should:
— Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by news coverage. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects.
— Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.
And, yes, medical professionals who are also cavalier about their patients or the remains of people are also unprofessional and subject to sanction.
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I’m sure glad that Google solved it’s comment problem with that Google+ real names policy…
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Eh, looking at the comments…did they change the policy? The majority of the comments are very obvious aliases.
Yes, but professionals should still try to remain sensitive to the victim’s families or it’s probably time for an attitude adjustment and/or avoid public relations altogether.
To @Skeptic :
Goading people into “outrage”? Obsessed?
You’re annoyed because you’re tired of those who have shrill over-reactions to things, correct?
How about those with little sense of irony, self-awareness and a tinge of hypocrisy? 
I also hope you do see the irony of saying the selfie is too trivial to mention, yet you found Xeni’s post on the selfie important enough to lodge your complaint with shrill terminology.
I would think you’d ignore Xeni’s post on the selfie just as you would expect people to ignore the selfie itself if the entire thing is so trivial in the first place.
The photos might be a bit tone deaf
I think that might be a bit of an understatement and the selfie was in outright bad taste.
Why? Because I have empathy for family members affected by tragedies who might find it a bit insensitive or even disturbing. I sure don’t see many finding comfort in a news reporter making them perhaps feel like the murder of their loved one is just another, trivial death within the daily grind.
I also find it disturbing because I think there’s a bit of a societal problem when we lack basic empathy even if the other person is a stranger.
Am I outraged about this because of Xeni’s post? No, but it makes me a little sad.
Do I think the reporter should apologize to the families of those affected? Yeah, I think that would be nice.
Am I glad Xeni posted this? Yes, because I think it might be nice for the families of the murder victims to see empathy for their loved ones (and hopefully a sincere apology) in replace of an image of aloof apathy.
She did a bit more than simply smile inappropriately and get it accidentally caught on camera or something. I’m not even aware of who her employer is and it’s irrelevant to me anyway.
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medical professionals who are also cavalier about their patients or the remains of people are also unprofessional and subject to sanction.
I’ve also observed from experience that aloof medical professionals tend to be poor at their jobs as well. A poor bedside manner has often portended a future malpractice.
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I think the families would prefer the murder be solved rather than have a “selfie” by a reporter picked up by news outlets and made the focus of the story. But, that’s based on what I would want. You, Cowicide, might want something different.
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Whether you die in a horrific blood bath, or silently in your sleep, life goes on without you.
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For the record, she did, and the Internet horde responded with more rape and death threats because she used the phrase “Sorry to those I offended”.
Dignity. dig·ni·ty noun \ˈdig-nə-tē\
1: the quality or state of being worthy, honored, or esteemed
For many people, the coverage of their death is often the height of their popularity. It’s also the last time they will have the chance to be honored.
We can’t guarantee that 100% of murders will be solved, but it doesn’t seen unreasonable to want a world where 100% of the coverage of their death doesn’t undermine their worth or dignity.
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You’re terrible.
And hilarious.
Darwin Awards are like Mark Twain quotes though, all the funny ones you’ve heard of turn out to be made up.
I think the families would prefer the murder be solved rather than have a “selfie” by a reporter picked up by news outlets and made the focus of the story. But, that’s based on what I would want. You, Cowicide, might want something different.
Nice ninja attempt at twisting logic while simultaneously proposing a disingenuous, purposefully obtuse mischaracterization of what I would perhaps “want”. That kind of insulting drivel doesn’t work on me, sorry… but, let’s see how you like it?
What most sane families would want is respect. But, that’s based on what I would want. You, Skeptic, might want something different.
I think the families would prefer the murder be solved rather than have a “selfie” by a reporter picked up by news outlets and made the focus of the story.
It’s not either/or. You are now implying that media coverage of the selfie is hampering the murder investigation.
And, you are now hypocritically doubling down on the shrill.
Once again, I think families can expect a murder to be solved while there’s a focus on respect at the same time. But, that’s based on what I would want. You, Skeptic, might want something different.
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Do I think the reporter should apologize to the families of those affected? Yeah, I think that would be nice.
For the record, she did
Good for her.
and the Internet horde responded with more rape and death threats because she used the phrase “Sorry to those I offended”.
That’s horrible, but what’s your point?
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I also think it’s a shame that this is what seems to be getting the most attention.
I’m also troubled by the lack of discussion on how this woman is getting rape and death threats. Yeah, perfectly reasonable response to a crass Instagram photo!
That the woman is getting even more misogynist hate heaped on her because the Internet horde didn’t like how she phrased her apology.
Who the hell am I kidding. The horde is angry, and won’t be happy until they can smile at her raped corpse.
I mean, let’s not have any delusions that gender plays no part. Peter frickin’ Jennings told a crass joke, on the air, on September 11, 2001, apologized later on the air, and went on with his life. Some female reporter from Orlando posts a smiley pic from a crime scene in Orlando, FL, and we need to have the woman’s damn head after she apologized.
I can only imagine what kind of abuse these two women were getting, because their Twitter and Instagram accounts have been deleted.
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Good points cowicide, I hadn’t given much thought to the victims families.
However, what is the over reaction and shaming doing any good for those families? Now they get to deal with this on a national level. Are the news outlets immune to being an escalating force?
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I’m also troubled by the lack of discussion on how this woman is getting rape and death threats.
I despise YouTube trollies.
However, I’m a little perturbed by the family being disrespected by her in the first place. Then again, I’m capable of feeling both of those two separate emotions at once.
Yeah, perfectly reasonable response to a crass Instagram photo!
Who is saying that - aside from other YouTube trollies, exactly? I’m not nor is anyone else on this BBS that I’ve seen.
The horde is angry, and won’t be happy until they can smile at her raped corpse.
Smile at her raped corpse?
The driving trollies is obviously horrible, but you’re being shrill at this point. If YouTube trollies followed through on their threats I would have been set afire, repeatedly raped and murdered a long time ago.
That said, when trollies degrade into severe online harassment like that I wish there was enough police resources to handle them and we could find out their identities.
If we could “out the trollies”, I wouldn’t be surprised if we found out that more than a few of these trollies are people who are actually trying to distract from those who are rationally upset with her behavior. What better way to disparage the rational people that are upset with her than to attempt to portray them as raving lunatics?
If you think those trollies have serious intentions behind their vitriol, I think you’re getting a little bit trolled yourself there, partner.
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You may want to check your biases, because I think you have mangled that so badly that what you’ve written isn’t even wrong.
However, what is the over reaction and shaming doing any good for those families?
I don’t think over-reactions are good in any circumstances, but I don’t think simply relaying her behavior on Boing Boing (for example) is an over-reaction.
Now they get to deal with this on a national level. Are the news outlets immune to being an escalating force?
I see your point there, but I don’t think the news outlets are to be blamed for covering it. She is a public figure and she made the choice to post an online, smiling selfie while at a double murder site.
That said, I don’t think the reporter should be hounded for it after her apology. She made a rotten mistake and apologized. Unless she has a history of doing this kind of stuff or continues to do so, I think people should accept her apology.
Good points cowicide, I hadn’t given much thought to the victims families.
And, speaking of the families - I do have to wonder how disheartening it would have felt if society simply ignored the reporter’s disrespectful, flippant image and moved along without comment?
Which is worse? Unwanted national attention or disrespect for your dead loved ones and no one seems to care?
All in all, I do see your point where it’s a dilemma and I hope the national attention isn’t making the grief for the families even worse. Then again, I think the reporter is to blame for it at its root. As a public figure, she should have known better.
P.S. I should note that I really don’t think news outlets should cover this very much. It’s one thing for blogs to relay what happened, it’s quite another for news outlets to harp on it and spend an inordinate amount of time on the side story instead of the murder itself.
Then again, I think a lot of our ever-consolidating, ever-shitty-izing news media should be covering a lot of different local topics, but they don’t do it for various reasons (nefarious and otherwise) and we’re all suffering because of it.
