Shooting the messenger

"Shooting the messenger" is a metaphoric phrase used to describe the act of blaming the bearer of bad news.

Until the advent of modern telecommunication, messages were usually delivered by human mcevoys. For example, in war, a messenger would be sent from one camp to another. If the message was unfitting, the receiver might blame the messenger for such bad news and take their anger out on them.

"Shooting the messenger" is a subdivision of the ad hominem logical fallacy.

History

An analogy of the phrase can come from the breaching of an unwritten code of conduct in war, in which a commanding officer was expected to receive and send back emissaries or diplomatic envoys sent by the enemy unharmed. During the early Warring States period of China, the concept of chivalry and virtue prevented the executions of messengers sent by opposing sides.

An early literary citing of "shooting the messenger" is in Plutarch's Lives states: "The first messenger, that gave notice of Lucullus' coming was so far from pleasing Tigranes that, he had his head cut off for his pains; and no man dared to bring further information. Without any intelligence at all, Tigranes sat while war was already blazing around him, giving ear only to those who flattered him".

Shoot the Messenger (film)

Shoot the Messenger is a television play first broadcast on BBC Two on 30 August 2006.

Synopsis

After reading a report that black pupils from inner city schools are being failed by the education system, IT consultant Joe (David Oyelowo) decides to become a teacher. Having secured himself a job at a school in South London, Joe uses a series of discriminatory methods to ensure black students are given extra tuition than their white contemporaries (targeting them for detention being one such method). When he is falsely accused of assaulting one of the pupils in his care (Charles Mnene), Joe is suspended from work pending an investigation. He appears on local radio where he defends himself against black rights activist Councillor Watts (Brian Bovell) who denounces Joe as "the embodiment of 21st century Britain [...] a Ku Klux Klanman with a black face". As a result of the broadcast, the community begins to turn against Joe and he loses his job. Slipping into a deep depression, Joe's marriage breaks up and he finds himself homeless.