Yesterday I had the misfortune of reading the comical herald. On page 3 there was some big splash with Halifax's poet laureate (Halifax has a poet laureate? who knew). Anyway of course it was all about the overexposed and now politicized Raymond Taavel case.
Of course today more of the same. Taavel still front page on the comical and a lead ATV story.
Let's look at this objectively for a moment. Since 2011 there have been around 20 murders in HRM. There's been more Taavel coverage than the other murders put together. Why is that? This morning Halifax council had a moment of silence for Taavel. Did council have a moment of silence for the other 19?
There's no evidence this is a hate crime given the state of mind and reasoning of the alleged perp. So what's the story. At 49 Taavel was not a young man. Around half of the HRM murder victims since 2011 have been under 25. Raymond got to have those extra 25-30 years in his life.
Nor was Taavel any kind of celebrity really. He was apparently well known within a certain specific community. The vast majority, like me, had never heard of Taavel until the murder and at this point have heard all we need or want to.
Of course the media misses the important issue. If you want to get upset about a murder then focus on the Spryfield case where a 72 year old man out for a walk was killed for fun by two teens who didn't know him. Think about what that represents in terms of cultural degeneracy. But where's the outrage there? Where are the concerts, demonstrations, extended front page stories in the herald, government task forces. Where was the poet laureate and the city council moments of silence in the Spryfield case?
No comments:
Post a Comment