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News & politics

When is information perhaps too much?

(82 Posts)
MawBroon Thu 21-Feb-19 22:13:32

I am listening to the news item about the wee girl murdered on Bute. I find hearing the details both shocking and upsetting. How much worse for her family and friends.

KatyK Thu 21-Feb-19 22:29:29

It's horrendous.

Anniebach Thu 21-Feb-19 22:43:15

So wrong to make details public, who does it help ? No one ,
Sick, sick, sick, sick. The little mite should have been given respect and dignity

Urmstongran Thu 21-Feb-19 22:54:49

I had to change channels as I couldn’t bear it. Once you know something you can’t then unknow it.
Were news reports always so prurient?
I think not.
Poor baby.

MissAdventure Thu 21-Feb-19 23:15:16

The news in general seems much more graphic than it ever was.
I can't even begin to imagine how it must feel for the parents of that poor little soul.

Ginny42 Fri 22-Feb-19 06:04:14

Bad enough for the jury to have to listen and I'm sure they will never forget. It would be more respectful of this beautiful child and her family not to have the world know what happened to her tiny body. Bless her, she suffered.

Marelli Fri 22-Feb-19 06:20:39

Did we need to see a photo of his discarded jogging trousers and boxer shorts, as well as the knife on the beach?
I don't mean that the public should be protected from seeing these things, but to show 'exhibits' in the newspapers is going too far.
Poor wee lass.

Anja Fri 22-Feb-19 07:00:08

Agree with all being said

Susan56 Fri 22-Feb-19 07:22:23

Totally agree with everything already said.I have just read the book by James Bulgers mother.James’s father and both families made the decision to keep details of James suffering from Denise but due to media reports,she is having to learn things she never wanted to hear.The little girl and her family have suffered so greatly and should be shown respect by the media,it will not help them in anyway for these details to have been made public.

annep1 Fri 22-Feb-19 07:28:14

I remember hearing details of the Moors murders. We don't need to know these things. Serves no purpose.

yggdrasil Fri 22-Feb-19 08:10:51

But when you only know part of the story, you could get very determined about the right or wrong of it. And then post messages to that effect.
I am thinking of the Shamima Begum case, there are several threads all of which start with 'she should not be allowed back'. We know very little about her life during the past 4 years, except she was groomed and radicalised at age 15, and since then has lost 2 babies, it seems by different 'husbands'. I want her brought back to find the truth, and for the sake of her current baby.
(Several ex ISIS people have returned and been dealt with, but they were men)

MissAdventure Fri 22-Feb-19 08:19:18

Perhaps it helps her family in some way that the public know what was done?
The boy was 16...
I've yet to hear anyone say that he is just a child.

MawBroon Fri 22-Feb-19 08:21:09

Fair point.
I was however more concerned with the graphic not to say grisly, details after a rape/murder trial where those closest to the victim risk seeing the awful details splashed across the media.
Hard enough for jurors to cope with, especially parents or grandparents, but there can be an unhealthy even prurient interest by the press which of course sells copies.
That is not the same as “knowing the facts” is it.
I think other posters realised what I was talking about.

MawBroon Fri 22-Feb-19 08:22:06

But when you only know part of the story, you could get very determined about the right or wrong of it. And then post messages to that effect

Hard to see “both sides” of this case IMO .

Marydoll Fri 22-Feb-19 08:29:31

I couldn't bear to read the details, the jurors must have been traumatised, listening to the details. How must her parents feel, with all the details splashed across the newspapers?
The pathologist said he had never seen such catastrophic injuries. ?
What puzzles me is that, as the perpetrator is only sixteen. he was classed as a child and tried as a child. However, you can marry at sixteen in Scotland, a bit of an anomaly there, I think.

Oldwoman70 Fri 22-Feb-19 08:49:37

It was enough for me to know this poor child had been raped and killed - I didn't want to know the details. It was bad enough for her parents to have to listen to the details during the trial, do they really need to know that those details are being published.

The boy has been found guilty and we can expect to read all about him, interviews with his parents, neighbours, teachers, even with the second cousin of someone who once sat next to him on a bus. I just want him to be put away and forgotten.

annep1 Fri 22-Feb-19 09:09:08

Possibly MissAdventure.

Kalu Fri 22-Feb-19 09:16:18

I am upset enough to know a child has been raped and murdered but to follow that with details and images serves no purpose except to shock and sensationalise cases like this.

What I can imagine in my own mind is heartbreaking enough without added gory details from a news segment.

Just my thoughts but I do fear sharing so many details of cases like this and the many others we now have information of will slowly desensitise society with negative consequences.

GrannyGravy13 Fri 22-Feb-19 09:20:41

I avoid news like this - it feels wrong to read / view .

Nanny123 Fri 22-Feb-19 10:16:36

To lose a child is the worse possible thing any parent (or grandparent) could go through, but to lose a child this way - how on earth could you EVER get over it. I just feel so much for the family.

123coco Fri 22-Feb-19 10:19:11

Simples - Don’t read or watch it!

EllanVannin Fri 22-Feb-19 10:19:31

I had to go in the back kitchen when this news came on. I do enough crying at news as it is and because I have GGC the same/similar age it makes me feel ill. Nobody who has any feelings does not want to hear further details.

Then my " death penalty " emotions take over as I ask myself do we need such monsters in our society and answer myself, as I've done dozens of times, NO.

Oldwoman70 Fri 22-Feb-19 10:22:23

123coco Not so easy when it is in your face in every newspaper, tv and radio news. We will then be getting the tv specials about it - all advertised during programmes with high numbers of viewers.

MawBroon Fri 22-Feb-19 10:26:48

123Coco when it is on TV or radio you have no warning.
I can choose not to open a paper or to read things which I know will live with me, but once heard it is hard to “unhear”

TerriBull Fri 22-Feb-19 10:32:30

Deeply upsetting piece of news, as is any suffering of children at the hands of adults or even an older child. As you say Maw too much information for the general public. How awful to sit on the jury of such a case, I'm sure it would haunt you forever.

There is such an ambiguity around "age" at the moment, specifically with the Shamima Begum debacle and the fact that she was 15 when she travelled to Syria and in particular as there are those pushing for the voting age to be reduced to 16, but in the eyes of the law 16 is still a child. I suppose age is quite arbitrary if one is a psychopath or have developmental issues. Under normal circumstances 16 is old enough to understand right from wrong and cause and effect.

Poor little Alesha, she looked such a happy soul, I believe she loved going to Bute to stay with her father and grandparents how awful for them and of course her poor mother.

The boy did seem to be under the influence of drugs and I believe pornography came up at some stage, both very pernicious imo.