Monday, November 28, 2005

Spot the tragedy

On Sunday, the body of Private Braun Scott Woodfield was returned from Afghanistan to Canada, escorted by a full honour guard. It's a story that has been covered by all the news outlets and I don't understand why.

Aside from the fact that he was serving in Afghanistan and riding an armoured vehicle, Pte. Woodfield essentially died in a car accident. No heroics, no enemy fire, not even friendly fire. There is no depth to this story.

In fact, the story brings to mind other topics and questions:

  • Pte. Woodfield was the eighth Canadian to die in Afghanistan since 2002. How many Afghanistan citizens have died in the same time period?
  • Would Pte. Woodfield have seen more combat action in Toronto this past summer, the setting of unprecedented gun violence, than in Afghanistan?
  • How much notice would the death of Pte. Woodfield have received if his vehicle had swerved to avoid an oncoming vehicle and rolled - in, say, Kingston or Petawawa?
  • Does the news service bring Pte. Woodfield's death to our attention because it is the correct thing to do, even if it is not remotely newsworthy?

Feel free to comment.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you really not understand or are you somehow stupider than that?

You write like a high school student--only you have no excuse for this stunningly tedious online journal.

Anonymous said...

There is no need to get into a self-righteous huff.

I'm simply questioning the newsworthiness of Pte. Woodfield's death, not the quality of his character or his actions.

Anonymous insults are unnecessary. They make you sound like a stupid high school student.