Littlejohn jokes about suicide

A few days ago, details emerged of a complaint against the Sun and its use of the word 'schizo'.

As if to prove shoddy journalism around mental health issues isn't confined to just one paper, here's Richard Littlejohn making jokes about suicide last Tuesday:

Fourteen workers at the Chinese factory that makes iPhones have committed suicide.

In Britain, elf ’n’ safety would have closed the plant for years while the windows were hermetically sealed; every employee would be given compulsory counselling and issued with hard-hats and hi-viz protective clothing. Blame Direct would be pumping out claims for com-pen-say-shun.

The Chinese have come up with a simpler solution, which keeps the production lines running. They have rigged up giant nets to stop workers jumping to their deaths.

Back of the net!

More on Tuesday's Littlejohn column from 5CC and Minority Thought.

Recommended reading

Septicisle has written an excellent post on his blog Obsolete about the media coverage of Noemie Lenoir's suicide attempt.

Several tabloids seemed to think the best way to cover this story was to put a picture of her wearing not much on the front of their paper and refer to her as the 'M&S babe'.

Anton has looked at the Mail's coverage of the same story, and found their unpleasant obsession with speculating as to why it happened.

Callous, tawdry, unfeeling and demeaning are just some of the words used to describe the media reaction.

The Editor's Code of Conduct clause on 'intrusion into grief or shock' includes:

In cases involving personal grief or shock, enquiries and approaches must be made with sympathy and discretion and publication handled sensitively.

But, as Anton points out, rather than giving us sensitivity:

It's a question of being as graphic as possible, as sleazy as possible, of digging up as much dirt as possible in as short a space of time as possible.

When not to use the word 'suicide'

This week we have had the suicide of Kevin McGee, the two teenagers who jumped to their deaths from a bridge, and the attempted suicide of the husband of a convicted paedophile.

Therefore, for the Daily Mail to use the word 'suicide' in a headline about the Royal Mail seems stupid, inappropriate and hyberbolic. And in very poor taste.

Not that that headline would be acceptable if those other events hadn't happened.

But it's interesting to note the word is entirely absent from the website version of the story - including from the headline.