Are lives lost in a downed plane more important than victims of other types of murder?

Firstly, for the record, and to avoid the typical emotional responses from people who do not read topics properly, I feel sympathy for anyone anywhere who has lost a loved one through murder or violence. Death of any individual causes emotional suffering to all the people involved in their life, and I do not wish that on anyone, but deaths affect me no more or less if I do not know the victims, regardless of the circumstances.

I watch a mixture of BBC/ITV/Al-Jazeera/RT news simply to have an awareness of what 'the masses' are seeing as the current 'important' news.
Of course, this missile strike on a civilian aircraft is a horrendous act and nearly 300 people needlessly lost their lives. The story is a tragic one as any death story is, but the only significance it has to my life is the potential geo-political/war issues that may follow as a result.

This OP is relating solely to my considerations of the UK media, and right now it seems to be on a mission of emotional background stories of the 10 British folk who lost their lives, their future life plans, how sad their grieving families are, and everything that the world is now missing after their deaths. I cannot disagree with any of that in principle, but around 10 people are murdered in the UK every week and their loss will make a local newspaper story at best.
Why are the lives of 10 British citizens on a plane apparently so much more worthy of such a big obituary than the people murdered every day in the UK?

If the story is about mass killings then why are the passengers of that plane more newsworthy than the similar number that Israel has murdered on the Gaza strip in the last week? I noticed the land offensive story was pretty much buried by the plane deaths.
How many people have died from car bombs in Iraq in the last few days? How many have suffered the same fate in Nigeria, Somalia, or other strife ridden places so far this month? Are they not newsworthy because they are not British, or is it the dramatic circumstances of a downed plane that makes it more important?

As I said, people are murdered everyday, in equally horrific circumstances all over the world, but the background story of their lives are never investigated and presented as something we should all feel greater sorrow for, so why are these 10 British victims so much more important to the media?

Again, I feel sympathy for anyone I'm aware of who has lost a loved one, so please don't get all emotional and claim that I am uncaring, but I cannot cry for the whole world, and there are many more people being killed every day in social/political conflicts than this one aircraft.

The story of this attack on MH17 is of course significant for airflight security and geo-political concerns, but as someone living in the UK, aside from a general sadness for anyone who has lost a loved on in any circumstance anywhere, I do not see why emotional TV media background stories of UK victims are any more important than the 10 people murdered on the streets here every week.

Again, please don't be silly and cry "uncaring person" as I feel for anyone who has lost a loved one through murder, but I do ask why the media seems to care more about the individual lives of this incident when many more people are killed in equally horrific circumstances all over the world every day?

Perhaps the emotional background stories sell more newspapers than the wider political concerns of what actually caused this horrible incident, and how it could influence the near future?

Although many here will disagree, the mainstream media, in your case the BBC, focuses it's reportage on events like this because that's what everybody is talking about right now, and they know it.

I've been hearing this tragedy brought up in conversation everywhere I've been over the last couple of days, have I been hearing people talking about what's happening in Gaza at the moment? No.

And no, I will disagree with the notion that ordinary folk are talking about the air crash just because it's all that is on the news at the moment. Why? Because quite simply most people don't really care about what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, that's old news, they do care about a plane crash because something so horrific and fantastical like that could happen to themselves or a loved one. It's simple human nature.

Direct answer to your question: YES!
When TPTB (that control the media) want to shift the focus of what is happening in Gaza to another outrage more palatable to their designs.

originally posted by: seabhac-rua
And no, I will disagree with the notion that ordinary folk are talking about the air crash just because it's all that is on the news at the moment. Why? Because quite simply they don't really care about what Israel is doing to the Palestinians, that's old news, they do care about a plane crash because something like that could happen to themselves or a loved one.

If that is the case then it is rather shallow and tragic in my opinion. Sadly, I cannot say I disagree with you.
Nobody I've spoken to this week has mentioned Palestine, even though a week or so from now the death toll of innocents there will be way more than the downed plane. I guess innocents there matter less to most people.
Shame.

a reply to: Aliensun
That is pretty much my opinion as well.

a reply to: grainofsand

I know it is sad.

a reply to: Aliensun

You could postulate that argument about anything.

At the end of the day all you're really doing is looking at the world through your conspiracy tinted lens.

a reply to: grainofsand

Well, there is some talk going around that a great many of the people on board the plane, may have been experts in the fields pertaining to the treatment of AIDs. Apparently one hundred of the people said to be on board were amongst a small number of people on the planet, who may have been able at some point, to solve the AIDs problem once and for all.

Its a crying shame.

I do not think that the deaths, these murders, are any different than any other murder in an awful lot of important respects. However, it is not often that a group of people from so many different walks of life, and of so many different nationalities, is taken out in the same incident, and while it is entirely common for individual nations to have a day of mourning when they lose large numbers of their countrymen, it is very unusual for so many nations to be united in grief in the aftermath of one single event.

a reply to: seabhac-rua
Media manipulation and 'games' are standard for governments though, no different to the UK government publishing reports or poor ststistics at midnight on a national holiday or some other big news event.
The game does exist, and I've been party to enough 'embargoed' information over the years to know that the public gets the info when it best suits the government.

a reply to: seabhac-rua

I agree and good post. I might add that people buy a ticket and expect the air carrier to get them to their destination more or less on time. Car bombs in Iraq and people dying is a known hazard as is spill one drop of Israeli blood as an enemy and expect to pay back with gallons. Like them or hate them that is the way they have conducted themselves. This time around though they are really pissing off many of the world community.... Protest at Embassies and more and more people who are proclaiming the Palestinians do not deserve this kind of retribution.. Hamas, Israel, until there is a meeting of the minds people will continue to die. Also the residents did not by a ticket to what is happening there unless you want to count who has been voted into both side's political offices.

a reply to: TrueBrit
I agree, and the loss of those AIDS experts of course is a tragedy, but I'm more concerned with the emotional personal stories of the 10 UK victims in the media.
I imagine their funerals will be covered in full detail as well in a few weeks, crying families and all the rest of it, but by then another 20-30 people will have been murdered in the UK and the media won't give a toss about them because it didn't happen in a plane.

Short answer: No, they are not more important, but they do have a much higher propaganda value.

You won't hear anything bad about Israel or Ukraine for a reason.

I don't know if the people on the plane were "murdered" or if it was all a terrible accident. Not much evidence right now. But the neo-cons are pounding it in that Russia did it and portray the other side as poor, poor Ukraine. I like to wait until I can see all the facts and make a decision myself.

a reply to: Fylgje
I can only consider definitions of murder based on my experience of the law in England and Wales:
www.cps.gov.uk...
But it is either murder or manslaughter and no mere accident. The surface to air missile was fired with the intent or expectation to kill those on board the plane.
For that reason I wonder why the media appears to have a greater interest in these 10 dead Brits and their deeply emotional background stories when as many are murdered in our country every week.
I think the story should be focussed about the background reasons for the incident and possible future political implications.
The background stories of the victims and the impending media rush when the funerals happen are no more or less important to me than a Brit being killed in a stabbing at a London housing estate.
...but by then Israel will have killed far more innocents in Gaza and that story will for sure be buried by leading stories of 10 British families crying for their loved ones in this plane incident.

Well since we are thinking this way, then I got a question, since only one american was killed, is that enough for the U.S. to even bother with this. Not really their problem right? Let the Dutch handle it they had the most people killed.

a reply to: grainofsand

The difference is that rich people and the elite ride the air often, though are rarely murdered like ordinary murders.

a reply to: Skorpy
That's a really good question as well because of the 300 million people in the US around 40 people would have been murdered the same day as the plane went down.
I completely understand nations being outraged by an attack on a civilian aircraft, but in the wider scale of things I cannot understand the almost voyeristic media focus on the individual emotional tragedies any more than the hundreds more who were murdered elsewhere in the world that day.

a reply to: Willtell
That makes some sense for sure, not many folk outside of Gaza/Iraq/Libya/Syria/Sudan/Somalia/Nigeria etc are ever likely to be affected by their ongoing horror stories so probably don't give as much of a toss about them.
Tragic.

a reply to: grainofsand
Some deaths are worth much more on the big political stage than others.
And some are worth covering up with lies and propaganda so none really see.
There is proof of what I say, all one need do is look.

originally posted by: grainofsand
Firstly, for the record, and to avoid the typical emotional responses from people who do not read topics properly, I feel sympathy for anyone anywhere who has lost a loved one through murder or violence. Death of any individual causes emotional suffering to all the people involved in their life, and I do not wish that on anyone, but deaths affect me no more or less if I do not know the victims, regardless of the circumstances.

I watch a mixture of BBC/ITV/Al-Jazeera/RT news simply to have an awareness of what 'the masses' are seeing as the current 'important' news.
Of course, this missile strike on a civilian aircraft is a horrendous act and nearly 300 people needlessly lost their lives. The story is a tragic one as any death story is, but the only significance it has to my life is the potential geo-political/war issues that may follow as a result.

This OP is relating solely to my considerations of the UK media, and right now it seems to be on a mission of emotional background stories of the 10 British folk who lost their lives, their future life plans, how sad their grieving families are, and everything that the world is now missing after their deaths. I cannot disagree with any of that in principle, but around 10 people are murdered in the UK every week and their loss will make a local newspaper story at best.
Why are the lives of 10 British citizens on a plane apparently so much more worthy of such a big obituary than the people murdered every day in the UK?

If the story is about mass killings then why are the passengers of that plane more newsworthy than the similar number that Israel has murdered on the Gaza strip in the last week? I noticed the land offensive story was pretty much buried by the plane deaths.
How many people have died from car bombs in Iraq in the last few days? How many have suffered the same fate in Nigeria, Somalia, or other strife ridden places so far this month? Are they not newsworthy because they are not British, or is it the dramatic circumstances of a downed plane that makes it more important?

As I said, people are murdered everyday, in equally horrific circumstances all over the world, but the background story of their lives are never investigated and presented as something we should all feel greater sorrow for, so why are these 10 British victims so much more important to the media?

Again, I feel sympathy for anyone I'm aware of who has lost a loved one, so please don't get all emotional and claim that I am uncaring, but I cannot cry for the whole world, and there are many more people being killed every day in social/political conflicts than this one aircraft.

The story of this attack on MH17 is of course significant for airflight security and geo-political concerns, but as someone living in the UK, aside from a general sadness for anyone who has lost a loved on in any circumstance anywhere, I do not see why emotional TV media background stories of UK victims are any more important than the 10 people murdered on the streets here every week.

Again, please don't be silly and cry "uncaring person" as I feel for anyone who has lost a loved one through murder, but I do ask why the media seems to care more about the individual lives of this incident when many more people are killed in equally horrific circumstances all over the world every day?

Perhaps the emotional background stories sell more newspapers than the wider political concerns of what actually caused this horrible incident, and how it could influence the near future?

Well, where do i start?

OK, i agree that there are murders each day, there are also automotive accidents each day resulting in deaths here in the UK, normally they make local news at best, never National. Why is this? probably because it is a singular death from a singular accident (sh*t happens, so to speak).

Now, MH17 and the 10 British Nationals is slightly different, it is a singular accident/incident, but the lives of nearly 300 people were involved, yeah, not all British but still. Think about when we have a tragic motorway accident in the UK, can you imagine the news coverage if nearly 300 people died in a single accident on the M5, there would be immediate calls for TCAS for cars, vans and lorries (not a bad idea actually) and it would be on the news for weeks until root cause could be established, yes ..... and the name of those theoretical people would be mentioned day after day, their hopes, dreams etc etc

Yes it's sad that each death isn't reported, each being as tragic as the next, that's the way we are i'm afraid, 1 death = sadness, close to 300 deaths in the same incident causes both sadness, shock and numbness.

BTW, for the two guys from my neck of the woods on their way to New Zealand to watch the lads ....... respect and a huge TOON TOON Black and White Army, i never knew you but my thoughts are with you and your families. RESPECT