You've probably heard about Diana O'Brien, the 22yr-old model found dead in her apartment building in China. Reading the Vancouver Sun today, I found myself wondering why this story was receiving so much attention.
If someone is found dead in a stairwell, especially if foul play is suspected, it's news. But it's not multi-day three-page-coverage news. So what's different about O'Brien?
Two things. The first can be summed up in a single word: Model. The second is where the story happened: China. "Model killed in China." It's a pairing of concepts that conjures lurid images of young white girls being menaced by dusky foreigners, and it is this dime-novel narrative that is driving the media coverage, and not the actual story. If a fifty-year-old man were killed in a botched robbery in Vancouver, let's face it...there wouldn't be a portfolio of sexy pictures for the papers to choose from.
Everything you need to know about the shitty level of journalism on display is right there in the headline of Wednesday's Vancouver Sun. "B.C. model killed in botched robbery, boyfriend believes."
"Boyfriend believes?" Can someone explain to me please, why the boyfriend's beliefs are considered worth reporting? It's not like he's on the scene. In fact, he's living on Salt Spring Island; why exactly is the Sun treating him as the clearinghouse of information between themselves and the authorities?
It's not hard to understand the answer. The authorities, as yet, are not giving a story that is sufficiently complete or interesting. So why not print the boyfriend's half-baked theories of what happened?
This happens to be a pet peeve of mine, just on general principle. I hate it when a tragedy happens, and the papers feel the need to quote the friends and families of the victims. It shouldn't be done. Partly because it's a ghoulish invasion of privacy, but mostly because these people all say exactly the same things, and none of it is newsworthy.
What's even sadder is, the Sun is actually being relatively responsible. The Province didn't even bother with the qualifier. "Model killed during botched robbery," they report, for all the world as if it were true. Don't get me wrong, it may be true. Or it may not.
Other examples of shoddy journalism pepper the stories of both papers. My eye was caught by this phrase, penned by Sun reporter Darah Hansen: "All [local modelling managers contacted] said they follow strict personal codes before placing a model -- some of them as young as 15 and 16 -- with an overseas agency." I challenge anyone to explain exactly what the phrase 'as young as 15 and 16' means.
The Province, for its part, feels the need to tell us that O'Brien was "pretty without her modelling makeup" and went to China eager to "further her budding career." At the risk of sounding callous, when you're 22 years old and still working crappy gigs in China, your modelling career is not on the upswing, and it's absurd to pretend otherwise just to give your narrative the Marilyn Monroe angle of a rising star cut down in her prime. It's repugnant to imply that this story is more important because the victim was young and pretty.
But, that's the Sun and Province for you.
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1 comment:
I like reading the news in print, however being a resident of Vancouver my choice of paper is utterly disappointing. It is reassuring to find others who are replused by our news being covered by tabloids posing as legitimate media.
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