Originally posted by danny marx
Respects go to the families of the two girls. But tenbellys, your argument that newspapers aren't just in it to sell papers I strongly disagree with. When I was 17 I did work experience at The Times (who are under the same group as the Sun - in fact the Sun offices were just across the road). As part of the work experience they let me sit in on the editorial meetings. One day this story came in about a school bus which went over a ravine in the south of France and killed some kids and seriously injured all the others. When it came to discussing this story, the editor said, and this is almost an exact quote:
"Can we get our man down there to get some good close up pictures of the injured kids looking distressed? That would look great on the front page".
I know it's part of the job to put your emotions to one side to a certain extent, but it rammed home to me the fact that yes, newspapers really are just about selling newspapers, and the "moral" obligations they proclaim to uphold are merely the same moral obligations that the general concensus tends to follow - and by conforming in that they're selling to the highest common denominator. They then embellish on that general concensus to maximise the response from their customers - us, the people who read the things. With a story like these two girls they can sensationalise it over a prolonged period of time and sell papers all week. It's a business - don't be fooled by their facade cos that really is all it is.