This is the 7th day of wall
wall-to-wall coverage of the Christchurch massacre, much the same length of
time as media interest in the Manchester massacre. Both events had their
heroes, both were subsequently commemorated by flowers and candles, and both
have been weaponised, one by anti-islamists, the other by a media laden with
its own agendas.
If I begin my next sentence with
‘What about’, I’m not on the verge of committing the new cardinal sin of
‘Whataboutism’ or the more serious sin of attacking an entire religion or
culture. In Manchester and Christchurch the media spotlight focused on heroes
and saints, and both events illustrate equally the beauty of human nature and its
foulness.
And with that warning:
What about the recent massacre in the
Philippines where 20 Filipino Christians were murdered in a church attack in
January 2019?
In Egypt on Palm Sunday 2017, twin
suicide bombings took place at St George's Church and the Coptic Cathedral of St
Mark's killing 47 Christians.
In Nigeria, the slaughter of
Christians continues, 120 massacred since February this year. In one attack,
eyewitnesses described how their assailants divided into three groups. One
group shot and killed people, another set fire to homes as people fled, and a
third group shot those fleeing.
Such massacres were of course reported,
but, crucially, in a more low key fashion and largely forgotten a day or two after. They
did not dominate the news cycle for seven days running.
The question is why?
It is not, I think, the result of some
sinister anti Christian conspiracy or a matter of ‘white’ lives mattering more
than ‘brown’ lives. Christchurch clearly disproves that. The answer is
largely ‘location, location.’ Lives lost in some locations accrue greater
significance than lives lost in others.
4 comments:
You may be right, but it does seem the media focuses more on Muslim deaths despite atrocities on Christians or any other sect.
I wonder why. Who's pulling the strings and what do they hope to gain from it?
And then there's fallout from political turmoil. We hear next to nothing about France's problems. Even Venezuela is kept on the down-low. Perhaps because Socialism is starting to get traction here and Venezuela kind of defeats their argument.
I'm of a similar mind, Maria but prefer to be a little oblique allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. Interesting ref France and Venezuela. France is down played here because nothing can be allowed to tarnish the glory that is the E U. Obviously you have similar in the shadow motives in America ref Venezuela :)
I do believe there's a minority bias in media coverage, at least in the states. In our attempt to show we're not prejudiced toward any minority group, we downplay or ignore events that happen to members of a majority (in this case, Christians).
News shouldn't have agendas, Linda.
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