Interesting situation arises when a reporter gets murdered, beat up or etc, in Russia…
Everyday this sort of stuff happens all over the world to everyday people. No one cares very much or really gives a crap when Grandma Sadie Mitchell gets shot, hit on the head or mugged in New York City…
You get a write up in the newspaper about it and never hear about this incident again…
But heaven forbid a reporter gets beat up or killed in Moscow or Russia. The news goes crazy. But where is all the crazy when a babushka gets killed or robbed? Where is all the hype when the homeless person is beaten and dies? Where is all the screaming when people are killed by suicide bombers everyday all over the world? Where is all the excess reporting when civilians are killed everyday by governments all over the world all in the name of terrorist control?
I get really tired of the pick and chose stupidity that we call news. If this reporter is so important that we have to have streaming news 24 hours a day about the terrible tragedy that happened. Then why is Grandma Sadie Mitchell dead and no one in the world cares or knows that she is dead? Everyday thousands of people are beat up, murdered and maimed all over the world. But unless you are in the right place and the right time you are a worthless statistic…
I feel sorry for the guy and I wish that he had not been beat up and I truly hope that he does not die. But I have no more feelings for him than the hundreds of other stories I will read in the next few days that involve soldiers dying in Afghanistan, militia dying in the Caucasus, the bus that gets suicide bombed, the child that gets kidnapped and raped, the drone that kills civilians in Pakistan, the Africans that are dying from starvation amidst politicians of plenty, the score of suicide bombs in Iraq for the millionth time, the next round of dead from a volcano, the next round of death from a earthquake, the next etc, etc, etc and etc…
The idea of reporting Oleg Kashin’s beating is fine, but the relentless non stop news reports about his beating is getting old and way overboard. The Russian blogs have gone off the deep end with the analytical and opinionated expressions of what happened and why it happened. The news from all over the world act like he is the only person who has ever been beat up and brutally assaulted…
How about a very small sampling of the articles that are all over?
- Russian reporter beaten into coma in Moscow, Kremlin orders investigation (theglobeandmail.com)
- Russian reporter in coma after beating in Moscow (msnbc.msn.com)
- Russian journalist ‘nearly killed’ in doorstep beating (guardian.co.uk)
- Russian outrage over new attack on journalist (independent.co.uk)
- Journalist Beating Pressures Kremlin (online.wsj.com)
- “Russia’s Dying Journalists” and related posts (robertamsterdam.com)
- UPDATE 2-Leading Russian journalist in coma after assault (reuters.com)
- Leading Russian journalist in coma after assault (nationalpost.com)
- When Will Russia Stop Destroying Its Journalists? (blogs.forbes.com)
- Leading Russian journalist in coma after assault (theprovince.com)
- Russian reporter beaten into coma in Moscow (thestar.com)
- Russian reporter beaten into coma in Moscow (msnbc.msn.com)
- Russian reporter beaten into coma in Moscow (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Russian reporter beaten into coma in Moscow (sfgate.com)
- Reporter in a Coma After Beating in Moscow (foxnews.com)
- Reporter beaten into a coma in Moscow (thestar.com)
Well Grandma Sadie Mitchell is as important to me as the Kommersant reporter Oleg Kashin. But she does not get 1000 articles non stop written about her. Maybe she should have a 1000 articles written about her. Maybe the deaths in Afghanistan should have a 1000 articles written about every death that happens. Maybe it should be mandatory that every death or beating or brutality has a 1000 articles by all the news agencies, written about that particular incident…
One person commits suicide about every 40 seconds, one person is murdered every 60 seconds and one person dies in armed conflict every 100 seconds, the World Health Organization said Thursday. Overall, WHO estimated that 1.6 million people met premature and violent deaths in 2000. Read More >>> (This is in 2002 and believe me it is worse now. Think how many articles we would have to do to cover that kind of death load…)
A death is a death. A mugging is a mugging. A beating is a beating. A crippling is a crippling. No matter how they happen or why, they all deserve the same level of importance…
Time to go home – Nothing new here…
Windows to Russia!
Update on a video that has been released.