The tone of her voice alerted me straight away. This wasn’t going to be one of my wife Delia’s usual mid-to-late afternoon ‘how-was-your-day-and-when-can-we-expect-you-home?’ calls.
“Have you heard,” she asked. “It’s awful. There’s been a shooting at a mosque in Christchurch. It’s all over the TV. They think that 27 people have been shot!”
The day was Friday, the date March 15, 2019. And - if anything – the news only got worse as - for the next 48 hours - the terrible, twisted evil that prompted 28-year-old Australian Brenton Tarrant to shoot and kill 50 and seriously injure over 40 more was played out on TV, radio, newspapers, and of course, on social media.
Like most Kiwis I couldn’t help but be drawn to the blow-by-blow coverage provided by both TV1 and TV3, as I remember I was after the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, and (it only seems like yesterday) the terrorist attacks on New Yok city on September 11, 2001, and the death of Princess Diana on August 31 1997.
This is what a broadcast does best, though in both cases (in my humble opinion of course) the coverage by both channels would have been better without the tabloid-style efforts of John Campbell and Patrick Gower to inject themselves into the narrative.
But we won’t dwell on that, will we?
No.
Incredible as it might seem, in fact, a whole lot of good has already come out of what for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described as ‘one of, if not THE darkest, day/s in our nation’s history.’ And –as I write this – less than a month has passed since March 15.
The key ‘get’ for me has been the fact that social media behemoth Facebook has been called out for its glacially slow response to the fact that Tarrant live-streamed his sickening rampage.
Users and non-users alike, seem finally to have woken up to the fact, that there is a down (or dark) side to the world’s largest web-based social network.
Facebook has, of course, been a force for good in breaking down barriers and providing a means by which people can establish and stay in touch with family, friends and work or special interest colleagues from around world.
It has done so at great cost, however.
Only last month, for instance, I wrote about some mean-spirited bugger who had - for whatever reason – taken a poke at a recent issue of NZ4WD.
What he wrote absolutely pales into insignificance compared to some of the comments I’ve seen on special interest sites and forums – yet it is only now that some of the people responsible for setting up and supposedly managing the sites are starting to think about moderating (a process whereby comments are checked out by experienced third parties BEFORE they are posted to make sure the site is not knowingly spreading Fake News, Hate Speech etc etc) them.
Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing. But what a lot of people forget, with freedom comes responsibility.
In the face of something so horrific, so plainly evil, and so absolutely ‘not us,’ it is easy, of course to be overwhelmed and not quite know what we as individuals can do to, to – somehow – redress the balance.
Many of you, for instance, will have contributed to a Give-A-Little page.
Me?
I reckon we all need to take a good, long, hard look at ourselves and think about the way we interact with our fellow human beings, face-to-face and perhaps even more importantly, Facebook to Facebook!
To read the full story in the May 2019 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (April 22) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store
