The World Today - Thursday, 29 July , 2004 12:25:00
Bad day of violence, as more than 120 are killed
I hope someone at The World Today gets their knickers twisted oh so tightly over this stupid, ill thought out, badly conceived, tasteless title of an article. If 120 people were killed in Australia (or the United States or most other locations on the globe) it would be much more than a 'bad day'.
I want to know who titled this piece - I would think about letting them go unless they could give me an explanation. Either fire their hurtful and idiotic ass, or ship them to the bombing site and insist they clean up body parts and patch together the wounded.
What do I want out of this? I want some decent reportage, some thoughtful, analytical, respectful, objective analysis. I want the emotional impact relayed to me as much as possible so as not to numb us (too late for that I imagine?). I do NOT want pithy, cheeky monkey, smart comments that seemingly trivialize the wounded, the dying and the suffering.
I generally like The World. I listen to them regularly along with the BBC, NPR and a host of other news sources. They offer great coverage but somehow this struck me wrong. When one person is killed it is more than a 'bad day'. A 'bad day' is when you are in an auto accident, when you burn the cookies, when you lack water for a day.
When 120 people are killed it is an abomination. It is a loss that affects each of us, it lessens us (with apologies to John Donne) and lessens our humanity. One hundred and twenty people killed? It enrages me, it is a disaster, it is sadness and horror and is is anything and everything but a 'bad day'.
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