Why do people ignore murders? (1 Viewer)

Mark_

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On the 4th of April, 14 people were murdered in Cancun, Mexico. With a population of about 750,000 this should be counted as far more terrifying than most of what we see published by "Journalists". Seldom is this pushed on international media though and it seems to be ignored by the majority.

I wonder why this is not reported on more? Is this a case of "It didn't happen in the "ENGLISH" speaking world so we don't care?
 

Frothingslosh

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I don't have the numbers for 2017, but in 2016, there were 17,250 murders and non-negligent homicides in the USA alone, which works out to about 5 per 100,000 people. World-wide, the rate varies from 0.00 per 100,000 (Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, etc) to over a hundred per 100,000 (El Salvador had 6656 in 2015, working out to 108.64 her hundred thousand people). So for starters, if every murder were published, there would be no time (TV) or room (print) to report anything else.

On top of that, if you're in the US, then yes, there absolutely IS a bias against reporting any but the biggest news if it occurred outside the US and doesn't impact the nation directly. The news is a reflection of what people want to see, and the American public at large doesn't care about murders in Mexico unless they involve Americans. Blame, if you will, nearly 40 years of demonizing Mexicans as barbarians who kill and ra** at will (our president sure does!), or blame the abundance of stories of drug-related killings, especially from the 80's and 90's. Overall, though, Americas are not particularly interested in foreign news of ANY sort unless it affects them, whether it be 14 people murdered in Cancun or the constant sniping of Gaza protesters by Israeli soldiers, which ALSO gets no major coverage. (The only reason that's in the news at ALL right now was someone videotaped an occurrence and put it online.)

Basically, the only exceptions are those killings we consider 'unacceptable' - mass graves and genocide in Africa get completely ignored, but the death of a hundred or so to poison gas makes front page news. (Also, note that Syria has quite the history of this, most of which goes unreported; there are 34 confirmed poison gas attacks by Syria since 2013.)

This really isn't anything new; the idea of America taking a world leadership role in ANYTHING really only took root after World War II.
 

Minty

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I can't back this up with a source, but I also am sure I read somewhere that the authorities in Mexico do a very good job of "hiding" violence / murders carried out in the more popular holiday destinations, specifically to prevent people cancelling or not booking their holidays.
 

Frothingslosh

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I'm pretty sure the leaders of most resort towns do that, honestly.
 

Mark_

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Vacation spots aside, most media seems to ignore just how horrible people are to each other across the world. There is a cry coming from people outside the U.S. for gun control IN the U.S. because of some school shootings. There silence from the bombing in Somalia that killed over 500 is terrifying.

It is as though "THOSE" people are not worthy of notice, but children in "America" are international news. Deaths due to the crack down on illegal drugs in Manila are barely a foot note. The inherent bias against the majority of humanity is very disturbing to me.
 

Frothingslosh

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People - generally more liberal organizations such as Amnesty International - have been making that exact complaint for decades now. As a rule, they get shrugged off as 'bleeding-heart liberal extremists' and ignored by the mainstream while being openly ridiculed by the conservatives.
 

The_Doc_Man

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Even the mass kidnapping of young females from schools by the Boko Haram group only made big news once even though I recall seeing brief articles on that subject since the big event a few years ago.

Countries tend to downplay these events because "it is bad for business." Which it damned well SHOULD be. The USA isn't populated by a bunch of angels - but we have no exclusive lock on bad behavior.
 

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