The obsessive news of violence

from w
The TV and radio are full of disturbing news that our world has so much violence where innocent people are hurt and the persons who plan and carry out such hateful deeds do not target their enemy but create chaos amidst ordinary families.  But also our news is biased and some stories get prominence.

What separates a death in Iraq from one in Boston? Opinion

By ABC's Jonathan Green

Posted Thu Apr 18, 2013 7:26am AEST | Updated Thu Apr 18, 2013 8:43am AEST

We should wonder how it is - if media profile can be an indication of worth - that we accord such differing values to different human lives.

The obvious answer is that a bomb blast in Boston is a shock, while in Iraq it is a commonplace. The more disturbing but no less obvious answer is that we instinctively put a greater value on familiar American lives.

The deaths in Iraq are stripped of the elements of empathy and surprise that would propel them - like those in Boston - into the eager vacuums of our news cycles....

The whole article can be read via ABC news website or by clicking on the title - in blue.