Explosion at Ariana Grande concert in Manchester May 2017 (Also London Bridge/Borough Market attack)

yeah, I forgot to add that bit but it's total a product of the stupidity of rolling news

i might not mind it quite so much if the grandstanding actually sparked debate or made any decent points but it's not like anyone ever has the courage to step out of 'oh the humanity!' mode

but does a rolling news channel need to be like that? run a range of quality contemporary reportage, World Service style, keep regular news bulletins, interrupt when there's something relevant to report.

that all costs money - ron burgundy emoting to camera over endlessly repeating shaky cameraphone footage is basically free

obv this would cost more money than giving somebody a mic and following them round Manchester city centre for hours while they stream of consciousness a bunch of Facebook memes

lol snap

i just saw the bbc ticker running what looked like the url of an instagram account of one of the victims which seemed like a new low

they also managed to fuck up the address so that it just read 'instagram/name' without a '.com'

Diana was pre-rolling news, and that's where this mode of thinking they have to 'reflect the national mood' kicked in, of course they don't know any actual plebs, so they've got to guess what they're thinking and then act it out in front of them.

there was this barely hidden glee in the voice of one reporter yesterday when she announced that names had started to be released, it was like "now the real human interest angle can begin"

thinking they have to 'reflect the national mood'

This used to be reserved for stuff like the Coronation or Winston Churchill's funeral, afaict.

yeah, the slow drip-feed of names and pictures and biographical details is manna from heaven for 24-hour news

i mean i'm not a journalist but let me take a swing at the national mood:

'fuck this is tragic, i feel terrible for the families'

now if only i could stretch that sentiment out over say 96 hours i could make it as a rolling news reporter

for his sick-making contribution to 'reflect the national mood' that's another one for the charge-sheet on Blair, when he gets arrested.

i mean i'm not sure that's actually on the statute books per se but i'm broadly supportive nonetheless

Yeah, Blair/Diana, the perfect storm of "I think speak for all of us when..." and "There can be no-one who has not been deeply affected by..." blah blah blafuckoff, bad enough telling us what to think without telling us what to feel.

Remember, it's rare

Don't forget - terrible things are on the news because they are rare and do not happen very often.

Although people are spending a lot of time talking about it, it is still very unlikely that events like this will affect you or your family.

The most important thing is that if you are feeling upset, don't keep what's troubling you about the news to yourself.

Talking to an adult about what in the news is worrying you can help you to understand what is upsetting you, and help those feelings of sadness, anger or confusion to go away.

CBBC: Advice if you're upset by the news

I genuinely think the above is a great piece, aimed at children who worry now.

But this text really should be read aloud and shoved into the faces of the many columnists and journalists tumbling over each other with grotesque, hardmanning, hate-filled pieces imho.

The US still appears to be leaking intel to the press. NBC is reporting WH officials have told them the bomber's family had reported him to the police as potentially dangerous.

The US is a leaky old vessel these days.

http://www.politico.eu/article/french-interior-minister-salman-abedi-had-proven-links-with-islamic-state/

xp France weighing in as well.

Radio 1 has been pretty good on this as well - knowing that this strikes right at the heart of their audience there have been a lot of reassuring sounds being made.

Remember when the government blatantly indicated they would use their intel prowess as leverage in Brexit negotiations with the EU?

Critical alert = Radio 1 digging out the Sabres Of Paradise iirc

Glad we've swung round to talking about the media coverage again, because I've been thinking about this overnight

http://i.imgur.com/66cjSfd.jpg

And clicking on the comments there's loads of stuff like this

http://i.imgur.com/OjHhbsY.jpg

Making me even more glad that I never tried to go into journalism if this is the state of things. Who harasses the recently bereaved? Who makes the effort to hector the bereaved people when they complain about the harassment, in the name of "public interest" as if that was some great over-riding moral imperative?

doorstepping is a time-honoured journalistic tradition tbh, albeit an unpleasant one - the only difference in the modern era is that those in a position of being doorstepped can broadcast the details for themselves on social media

obv hectoring the bereaved in response is a modern invention too, hurrah for progress

Gather and report news. One of the ways that was done was by hacking dead kids voicemail.

And if anything were going to change, it would have changed when we found out. But it didn't, and it won't.

I can't imagine how angry I'd be if this happened to me, the sense of entitlement is so odious, the personal details are none of our business

Death knocks have been a thing forever (and often end up with the journalist being invited in and talked to for ages). This feels like a new level of intrusiveness though - largely driven by social media and the Insatiable Content Machine.

that is a very tasteful calling card tbf

'lots of women take it as a compliment' / 'that's crass of course, but as long as it's done respectfully...'

Also, the entitled anger at the guy who's fearing for his brother's life daring to block some cunt lecturing him on the role of the press. Whatever your opinions on that just be fucking human and accept he doesn't have to debate you in a time of grief.

on my lunch we walked past police, fire dept & army guys as they were finishing raiding a place. some of our brave servicemen with scarves over their faces then blazed through a red light in a black van and flicked us a V, which can surely only be taken as a gesture of solidarity and defiance

For the absence of doubt I think that death knocks are reprehensible regardless of the situation but technology has magnified the whole thing and turned it into a feeding frenzy.

How did I miss this story? These girls are heroes. Fuck the S*n pic.twitter.com/ZDQPHIHVW4

— Harry Stopes (@HarryStopes) May 24, 2017

i think there's a case for reporters local papers offering to help grieving families get their story out -- and there's really no other way to be certain this happens than doorstepping -- but there's something p repulsive abt hacks from the tabs helping themselves to this argument

^^ there definitely is. Dealt with that myself covering the death of a soldier in Afghanistan, who was from my local area. But all on the family's terms. The national media is a circus that travels around doing this, preying on today's story, never to be seen again in said community after. There's no accountability, which is *very* different for local media, who are part of the community.

it's so easy to get in touch with the media now if and when people are ready, there is no good reason for hurrying them

lbi and mark s v much otm

ogmor otm

it is weird that the BBC pop music stations - 1, 2, 6, 1X, Asian - are the ones covering this with class. Both in DJ links and in the news reporting.

Manchester - A Fat Old Fool's Viewpoint....

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/23/morrissey-attacks-politicians-and-the-queen-over-manchester-terrorism-response

Have people heard the performance poet on Radio 4? They were making a big deal out of him on Today. Afraid I found it a bit trite.

Troops on Downing Street is nonsensical cringeworthy shit and think it counts as 'campaigning' tbh

fuck me, morrissey's gone full trump

Morrissey cited government immigration policy among his complaints saying the prime minister would never change her immigration policy in the light of the attacks. It is believed that the bomber named by police, Salman Abedi, was British-born and from Manchester.

Morrissey also appeared to suggest that politicians were afraid to refer to Abedi as an Islamist extremist.

The claim that politically correct leaders routinely refuse to mention Islam when referring to terror attacks carried out by people holding a violent interpretation of the religion is common on the far-right. In recent years, many politicians have acknowledged the role of such an ideology once it has been confirmed, while also stressing that it is alien to the vast majority of the religion’s adherents.

Troops on Downing Street is nonsensical cringeworthy shit and think it counts as 'campaigning' tbh

^^^
absolutely, that is pure fucking campaigning and TM should be lambasted for it.

this will probably be the thing that makes them tighten up the airbnb rules

Dan Hett's brother, I am sorry to say, has been confirmed dead.

Solid work the Guardian in underlining with every paragraph that Morrissey's talking complete shite.

Meanwhile, at the Terrograph, Why Oh Why meets Will This Do is the order of the day. Every day.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/24/left-has-lost-plot-thinks-manchester-attack-tory-conspiracy/