Not to be a jerk or anything, but no I didn't need to see that either

truely sad and sick.....America has a disease.....

That's just wrong.

It's necessary to sell newspapers and raise ratings.


Reminds me of a song...

Eye on the TV
Cause tragedy thrills me
Whatever flavor
It happens to be

Like:
"Killed by the husband"
"Drowned by the ocean"
"Shot by his own son"
"She used a poison and in his tea
...kissed him goodbye"
That's my kind of story.
It's no fun 'til someone dies

Don't look at me like
I am a monster
Frown out your one face
But with the other
Stare like a junkie
Into the TV
Stare like a zombie
While the mother holds her child,
Watches him [dying;]

Hands to the sky crying,
"Why, oh why?!"

Cause I need to watch things die
From a distance
Vicariously, I
Live while the whole world dies
You all need it too - don't lie.

Why can't we just admit it?
Why can't we just admit,
We won't give pause until the blood is flowin'
Neither the brave nor bold
Will write as the stories told
We won't give pause until the blood is flowin'

I need to watch things die
From a good safe distance
Vicariously, I
Live while the whole world dies
You all feel the same so
Why can't we just admit it?

Blood like rain, come down
Drawn on grave and ground

Part vampire
Part warrior
Carnivore and voyeur
Stare at the transmittal
Synched to the death rattle...

La, la, la, la, la, la, la-lie (x4)

Credulous at best
Your desire to believe in
Angels in the hearts of men.
Pull your head on out
Your head, give reason to give a listen,
Shouldn't have to say it all again.

The universe is hostile
So impersonal
Devour to survive
So it is, so it's always been ...

We all feed on tragedy
It's like blood to a vampire

Vicariously, I
Live while the whole world dies
Much better you than I.

NDRU said:

maybe i should take it down. i can't think of a way to link to it - they'll probably take it off the main site soon.

IrresistibleB1tch said:

Yeah, I absolutely agree with your sentiment, but including the picture (though i see now you added a warning) is kind of perpetuating what CNN.com is doing

NDRU said:

true. let me edit the post, too.

I haven't seen it, but I agree that showing a body like that is tacky and disrespectful.

It boggles the mind that in your country a plastic Jackson tit would cause an uproar, and a "suggestive" guitar pose would cause giggles and blushes, but a dead body is A-OK.

Just goes to show how fucked up society can be. Sex is something dirty that children need to be protected from, but violence and gore are broadcast over dinner.

I must admit I know nothing of this incident, but the media always choose a picture they think is important or shocking or just plain good photography, after any event.

Not that that makes it any less wrong, but it reminded me of the picture of the man falling from the twin towers that was immortalised. Either humans just have a bit of a seret morbid fascination with that sortof thing, or the media is just evil and out for profit and infamy. You decide.

susannah said:

I think both are true. We can't help but look at the train wrecks, and the media knows it. My head turns to see the violence, and I almost always regret it.

And the earlier comment about the US and sex vs. violence is right on! How can it be okay to see actual violence on TV, but not staged sex?

NDRU said:

It doesn't make any sense to me. Sex is -in the procreative form at least -the beginning of life. How can that possibly be dirty? Or maybe it's the fact that the majority of sex in media has the primary function of pleasure, and not babies, that has so many spooked. Our culture, hedonistic as it is, functions on the basic principle of "If it feels good, it must be bad."


But why is violence so acceptable? Maybe there's a bigger purpose to it. Maybe, by keeping us desensitized to it, when we see atrocities on the news we're more likely to simply yawn and go back to our meal than do something about it?

IrresistibleB1tch said:

This kind of thing always infuriates me on the news. A friend of ours killed someone and then killed himself. They showed his dead body on the news- his mom was so beside herself when she saw that on tv.
I do not understand why all of that needs to be aired...

meow85 said:

perhaps you're right. that's how war is waged

I don't get it either. I recently heard a conversation between young men about movies: "It was all right, but I expected it to be more gory. There wasn't enough blood."

I realize they were talking about entertainment, but I don't understand that feeling anymore.

Maybe it's because the sex is so idealized/stylized in American entertainment that we can't handle the real thing, and violence is so overdone in entertainment that real violence doesn't look as gory?

I also find it curious that we can watch two lions having sex on TV but not two people.

some scattered thoughts...

meow85 said:

drives me nuts!

Shanti1 said:

NDRU said:

I know this is slightly O/T, but I think what's wrong with modern horror is that it focuses too much on the blood and gore and not enough on suspense. Blood grosses people out, but it's not actually scary.


You might have a point. Sex is fun, but it can also be weird and unpleasant and embarassing -something it rarely, if ever, is in the media. Meanwhile, accident and attack victims in the real world are often surprised at the relative lack of blood and guts, they're so trained for gore from movies and TV.


Me too. Sharon Stone's infamous scene has to be cut in daytime broadcasts of Basic Instinct, but the kiddies can watch Simba and Nala rutting like crazed things all they want on the Discovery Channel?
[Edited 2/13/07 16:35pm]

IrresistibleB1tch said:

I always feel so bad for the families...
What a sick world we live in some times....