Sky Sports News joined its illegitimate sibling the Sun in the media sewer last night by an act that would have made Kelvin McKenzie proud. With the search for the missing footballer Emiliano Sala continuing in the English Channel, it decided to broadcast raw footage of the player’s distraught father at home in Argentina. What possible justification could there possibly be for that?
The answer is there could be no possible justification for that. Clearly, SSN, as a rolling 24 hour sports news channel, has to do a lot of ‘filling’ in order to pad out the working day. Some bright spark, someone devoid of sympathy, empathy and even the slightest amount of decency, thought it appropriate to broadcast pictures of a man whose son was probably dead. What did they do it for? Did they think we needed to see the poor man’s utter desperation and desolation? Did they think we needed to see him cry, in order to prove just how desperate and desolate he was?
I mention Kelvin McKenzie, the never-to-be-forgotten villain of Hillsborough who libelled the dead and dying and lied about the survivors. A different story, but equally shocking and equally indefensible.
If a grieving father is fair game, then what and who isn’t? I could give some examples of what, in this version of events, might be fair game but I like to think I am better than that.
Clearly, in the absence of a full apology, SSN thinks their decision was perfectly acceptable and Mr Sala was fair game for media intrusion. And speaking personally, I am happy to be shocked at the appalling editorial decision to show the footage. Clearly, Sky TV feels nothing at all. The spirit of Rupert Murdoch lives on.
