16554: Fuller: Accident victims

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Affuller@aol.com

On Sunday August 24 there were two terrible accidents in Haiti.  A reported 41 persons lost their lives when their bus fell into a ravine near Mirebalais and 21 died in a plane crash five minutes out of Cap Haitien in the direction of Port-de-Paix.  Boat and road accidents are all too common in Haiti if plane crashes are not, but still this was a terrible day.

Here’s my question.  Why does the press (radios, newspapers) rarely report the names of those killed?

In my experience, it is only the rich or well-known who are ever publicly identified in news accidents.  I have always been offended by the media’s lack of interest in the identity of the dead, and attributed it to class and gender prejudices, for the victims are usually poor people, and often mainly market women.

When the New York Times gave a photo and several paragraphs to each of the 3000 victims of the Sept. 11 attack, I thought it was a fine hour.

Am I right or is this the reaction of an American who is missing some cultural key?

Anne Fuller