Since Lord Justice Leveson, after the inquiry, released his recommendations into the Media and how newspapers needed to be regulated properly to stop injustices to victims of media intrusion, the newspaper industry has jumped up and down and said ‘No way, we ain’t playing ball.’
Well, today’s front page headlines that are appearing in, the Metro, The Sun, Daily Mirror and Daily Mail show exactly why these recommendations are needed. And why they need to implement them NOW, not tomorrow or next month or next year, but NOW.
The tragic death of Robin Williams, the funny man who was deeply tormented, yet gave everything to entertain us, has shocked us all. We couldn’t believe it when the news first broke and felt saddened by the loss of such a great actor and comedian. His memory and his films will be with us forever, and he will never be forgotten, but do we really need to know what troubled him so much.
Yet today’s front pages are full of headlines, about how he was facing bankruptcy and how he was having to sell his property and how much his divorce settlements cost him. FFS that was his own personal business.
What right do to the media have to print his personal business in such a manner. It was bad enough when the Coroner last night told us he had hung himself by using a belt and had attempted to cut his wrists.
Leave the man alone… Why he died is even more tragic, if these are the reasons, behind his death. But it is none of my business and I really don’t need to know the ins and outs of his death to mourn for such a talented actor who reached a point where suicide seemed to him, the only way out.
I tell you what, how about us the public starting a blog or newspaper and printing the personal details of every divorced journalist and not forgetting the shady lives that some of them have and how they stoop to gutter level just in order to get the story. Yes, all so we the public can pick their lives apart. How about printing the personal finances and how much they have in the bank and how they have to sell their soul in order to pay their bills? Would they like it? No they bloody well, wouldn’t, and neither would you or I. So please leave Robin Williams alone, let his family grieve in peace.
People get divorced and people have to pay settlements, the courts award it. How do you think his ex-wives feel today, knowing that they could well be part of the reason he took his own life?
Apart from their disgusting headlines about Robin Williams, the Metro and other newspapers sunk to new lows yesterday…. With regards to another person.
An inquest heard how a man died because he felt too embarrassed to get medical help because he had used a vibrator and got it lodged in his anus. By the time he sought medical help he was suffering from septic shock. He didn’t go nowhere when it first happened, because he was too embarrassed, and what did the Metro as well as other papers do? Yep, you guessed it, they named him and gave his whereabouts out. And embarrassed him all over again.
Nothing will bring him back from death, but at least newspapers should have shown some consideration, for his family, when reporting. It was a tragic death, and nobody should feel embarrassed about getting medical help… I bet in the future, people might just be, because they will fear that it will be them that is sprawled across the media and that their families will suffer the humiliation of it being reported. The papers yesterday DID NOT have to name him or print his partial location. They still could have reported the incident, but shown some restraint.
And that is why we need the Leveson Inquiry Recommendations to be implemented.
Filed under: Thoughts and Opinions Tagged: Death, Depression, Divorce, Inquest, Leveson Inquiry, Lord Justice Leveson, Metro, Newspaper, Robin Williams, Suicide, Sun
