There are no links in this post. There are no photographs. There is only my sincere hope that I am not the only person in Canada disgusted to the point of cookie-tossing by the on-going reporting of the details of the Tori Stafford rape/murder.
Has the entire mainstream media universe descended to the level of an old-style yellow tabloid? No, worse: because the scandal-sheets back then would never have provided the graphic information that the mainstream media are hawking today.
The parents and family of the little girl are being exposed to this depravity, not only in the theatre of the courtroom where such material is evidence, but in the the wider world outside.
They should have been spared this. And so should we all have been.
The mainstream media have now proudly joined the ranks of the purveyors of violent child pornography. We rightly make the latter pariahs, not only because of the vileness that they feed, but because real children are used in its production, and will continue to be so used as long as the market remains. But the former have an alibi. They’re just bringing us the “news.”
No doubt the defenders of this lewdness will smugly defend the “public’s right to know.” But that’s an abstraction, in excruciating juxtaposition with what they are actually foisting upon us.
Set aside the debate about whether such pornography creates monsters or awakens monstrous propensities in ordinary people. The jury in that case remains out. But this can safely be said:
The poisons being transmitted at the moment infect all of us. They lessen us. They violate us. They make it impossible, at least for the moment, to believe in the innate goodness of humanity. They destroy our optimism, our sense of meaning, our sense of worth. They erode our sense of community. They strike at the very heart of what we call morality.
The media are presently doing the work of ghouls, feasting on dead flesh. Their breath is fouling our Canadian air. What the hell has happened to our collective sense of decency? Will no one else speak up?
