The terrorists have done it again. Driving a hired van into innocent unsuspecting victims in Barcelona, like they had done in Nice, London, Berlin and Mumbai. Having to date taken the lives of 14 people and injuring 100, I am left to wonder whether as part of the media, I am actually helping so called Isis to place fear in people’s hearts.
This week over 500 people died due to flooding in Sierra Leone. I am not going to pretend it didn’t feature in our headlines, of course it did; but the rolling, continuous coverage of the massacre in Barcelona, indeed the wall to wall, non stop media frenzy when a perceived Islamic extremist carries out a barbaric act is making me a little uneasy.
For the most part these people are carrying out low level, unsophisticated attacks. “Get a car and drive it into people” The never ending coverage and calls for all moderate muslims to disassociate themselves is very concerning to me. It feeds a narrative.. “The enemy within”
If you were an Isis leader dealing with propaganda, you’d be loving it. All you need is a disaffected loser, not allowed to debate openly, watching people die in (let’s say) Iraq, with no stake in this society, whose watched a couple of hate preachers on the internet, to get a car and a knife, hurt people shout Allah Akbar and …. there you go.
In America, they’ve looked at the way they cover the campus shootings which were becoming alarmingly regular. The more you show it maybe the more you encourage it. Something to think about at least
