RANT AHEAD:
Quite a few times now, I’ve seen the complaint that “the news refuses to cover the story about the migrants’ sinking ship and focuses on the billionaires instead”.
This strikes me as totally unsurprising. 99% of all news sites are given by gathering clicks and eyeballs. The Titan story has it all:
- Billionaires
- Zany CEO with submarine with oddly sourced parts
- Tie in to one of the most famous shipwrecks of all time
- A story that’s technically easy to understand (the sub went underwater and was lost, you don’t need a degree in advanced physics to appreciate this)
- Some drama because they might have been underwater without oxygen vs. instantly dead due to decompression
- The possibility of an exciting sea rescue
vs the migrants’ story
- No one famous or of note on board
- This is by far NOT the first vessel lost in this manner
- No exciting twists
I’m sorry, but if I headed up a news room OF COURSE you will run the first story. It’s simply more exciting. This is NOT an example of class war or a personal vendetta against the poor.
If you are one of those who think the migrants story should be more closely followed why don’t YOU lead a discussion about it, volunteer your money and/or time to organizations that support migrants, etc.
It’s also a really boring complaint to see, because nearly ALL of the major news outlets DID cover the story, but guess what, it is far less engaging, so it gets less attention overall.
Don’t blame the news for what stories get big – blame the public and their fascination with these stories. The news outlets are only putting out what their audience wants to see.
Feel free to start a site that talks only about migration issues, but I think you’ll find it way harder to make money vs talking about clickbait.
You might be right that it’s not an issue of conscious personal vendetta against migrants (although I wouldn’t necessarily count that out) or an explicit class war, but I also don’t think that either of those things are what most people (or at least not the ones who weren’t just obnoxiously meming it for the drama or for hot takes) were trying to point out.
The comparison is meant to make us examine our priorities as a society. Why do we want to talk so much about these 5 rich people in the weird billionaire sub vs the migrant shipwreck? I do think it’s a valid theory that at least part of it is that as a society we place more significance and worth in the wealthy white folks. I think that a lot of it is probably also a ghoulish sort of rubbernecking impulse. The details of the sub story were weird and a bit morbid. Neither of those impulses are great, and I don’t think there’s any harm in pointing out the inequities and inviting some self reflection on where they come from.
However, I don’t love the sort of snide, gleeful celebration of the death of the folks on the sub either. I understand the frustrations that it comes from, but I think the folks cracking jokes or celebrating those deaths ought to be doing as much self reflection as the folks that were ignoring or ignorant of the migrant deaths.