Skewed news values
Three days of super-yacht overkill
Last night the main BBC News at Ten led for the third successive day on the sinking of the Bayesian off the coast of Sicily. Five bodies had been recovered from the yacht, but the bulletin wasn’t able to say whose they were.
A video of the water spout thought to be responsible for the sinking that had been shown the previous night was rebroadcast, as was footage of divers jumping into the water.
The reporter on the spot had nothing to add to the basic facts that had been known since Monday, beyond the recovery of the unidentified victims’ bodies. But he went for a ride with an Italian sailor who offered his personal insight - the journalistic equivalent of interviewing a bloke in the pub. This went on for six minutes - nearly 20% of the total running time for the programme. It was as though the accountants had told the editorial team “You’ve got a reporter and camera crew on the spot, you’d better make the most of them to justify the expense”.
This morning the story makes the splash for the Express for the third day running. It is also the lead for the Mail and Times. Unlike the TV news, the papers say that the bodies of tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his daughter were among those brought to the surface. Others also put the development on the front, but not as the main story, not as the only thing really worth bothering with, as the Express did.
There is no question that the sinking of the yacht and the deaths of Lynch, his lawyer, the Morgan Stanley banking chief Jonathan Bloomer and their relatives were a real news story. Particularly coming so soon after Lynch’s acquittal of fraud charges at the end of a 12-year legal battle. And it continues to be so, given that Lynch’s co-defendant had been killed when he was hit by a car only last Saturday. Of course there are questions to be asked.
Also, there was the freak aspect of the water spout, and the mother’s moving account on Monday night of how she saved her baby.
There were plenty of elements to make it a compelling story - when it happened. But those factors were not what projected this story into the top slot for the third day. Indeed, the Mail - which usually has the best news antennae of any media organisation - didn’t even think it was the best story when it broke on Monday. It preferred its book serialisation and the late Queen thinking Donald Trump rude.
Rather, there seems to be an almost kow-towing assumption that people are in awe (or envious) of the wealthy and powerful and so they must be interested in their fate. (Look at that Times headline on Tuesday: “Millionaires in yacht tragedy”.) We saw it with the Titanic submersible, which also dominated the front pages for days. But in that case there was the “ace in the hole”, race-against-time element to sustain interest.
Many people have died in boats in the Med over recent years. Politicians and press have made a lot of fuss about them. But they haven’t bothered to tell us who they were or lingered over their fate for days.
Yesterday, a mother and three of her young children died in a house fire in Bradford. Thank heavens for the Mirror recognising this as being worthy of prominence. For the BBC news and yacht-obsessed papers, they were thought deserving only of second billing or inside coverage.
Why? Because a man has been arrested for suspected arson? Is the restraint down to respect for the law once proceedings are under way? That doesn’t seem to have stopped extensive coverage of other suspected crimes - most recently, of course, the stabbings in Southport. Or was it because because our media don’t think the boat people and the young family in Bradford matter, while the wealthy on their yacht do?
These are seriously skewed news values. But they are also flawed from a commercial point of view. The timing of Lynch and his co-defendant’s accidental deaths, so soon after their acquittals, and the business ramifications are matters of legitimate journalistic interest - but not as a lead story on day three.
As to the “human” side of it, naturally no one would wish to such a death on anyone. But, brutal as it sounds, most people don’t care.