"Two women were reported killed"

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6220518.stm

My point is not the story itself – which is bad enough – but the manner in which the news was reported. The quote comes actually from the news as reported on BBC Radio this morning which went “Twenty al-Qaeda militants were killed by US forces this morning. Among them, two women were reported killed”.

Why is there this need among the news media to make draw attention specifically and emotively to the deaths of women and children? I agree wholeheartedly that the death of any innocent is terrible enough, but my point is: why are the deaths of innocent women and children more newsworthy than the death of innocent men? It’s as though here is some sort of reverse sexism going on because they know that Middle England will pull a collective face and say to each other over their cereal bowls how terrible it is that women and children are dying.

What about the dead men? Don’t they count?

: 08 Dec 2006 12:19 |  Comments (14) |  Report a problem