• Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    One criticism I have with news articles like this in general.

    You’ve just acknowledged that the person is now a target of the far-right extremists because of who her family is. You’ve just acknowledged that at least one person already has taken some kind of action against her, even if only to send a message.

    So why the fuck are you plastering a picture of her at the top of the article that’s almost bigger than the article itself? Do they realize they’re just saying “Hey extremists, in case you don’t know who you’re looking for, here’s the newest target of the Trump Hate Machine. You know what to do.”

    I understand that like it or not, she’s a public figure and all that. But when they’re reporting on her, do they really need to make the work of these whack-jobs that much easier? Her picture contributed exactly nothing to that article outside of helping the next nutjob identify his target.

    • bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 months ago

      The far right are crazy, but this incident doesn’t seem to be political or targeted towards Harris’ step daughter. TMZ has a video of the incident and says:

      We’re told while she was inside, one of her agents – who was dressed in plain clothes – had an altercation with what’s been described to us as an “anti-police watcher.” Basically … this guy goes around and makes a fuss about NYPD parking placards given to law enforcement agencies … so they can park without having to circle the block a ton. In this case … our sources say the dude in black came up and started getting into it with the Secret Service agent in blue you see in the video … apparently not realizing he was an agent … assuming he was a cop abusing his parking privileges.

      • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The far right are crazy, but this incident doesn’t seem to be political or targeted towards Harris’ step daughter.

        I know. I’m speaking in general terms. I’ve seen this happen my whole life. It’s a general criticism of the media, not this particular incident or media outlet. They know this woman just became a target of far-right hate groups. They know at least one person already has tried to do something. And don’t get me wrong – they can and should report on those things as they happen. But just leave the picture out. Her picture did exactly nothing to contribute to the information in that article. And yes, her picture can probably be easily found in other places. But let them look for it. Don’t just hand it to them. Don’t just make these whack-jobs’ jobs that much easier by plastering her picture all over the web page. It’s a variant of the Streisand Effect, when you think about it.

        “See this woman? The one in the picture with the brown, curly hair and glasses that lives in the middle of NYC? This woman, who comes from new york and has brown curly hair and glasses is in danger of being killed by right-wing extremists. We certainly hope that nothing happens to this woman from New York with the brown curly hair and glasses who drives a red Dodge with the licence plate of NYC-123.”

        Exaggerated for hyperbole sake, but I’m sure you get the idea. Sometimes the media can be a little too free-wheeling with details and can just end up making the problem worse.