Disappointment

I read an absolutely terrible and sad article today about a man (well no more than a boy, really) who has been convicted of the most horrible murder of a beautiful and vibrant young woman. The young woman – as indeed was her assailant – was a former pupil at Harrow School where her father also taught. After tricking his way into her home one evening, this young man subjected his victim to an attack of such obscene violence that even the worst example of sick movies ever produced by Hollywood couldn't match it. Quite terrible, and of course, very tragic.

But what I find just as offensive about this article is the way that it depicts the tragedy as being more shocking just because both assailant and victim had attended a so-called 'upper-class school' (indeed, much is also made in the article of the fact that the murderer was a student at Oxford too). This is as if to say that whereas we can expect such atrocities to erupt from the sewer-life of those less privileged in society, it affronts our moral code more so when we realise that even toffs have drug and mental health problems too. I am particularly incensed by this paragraph from Richard Edwards, writing today in the Daily Telegraph:

Miss Braham's family is steeped in success. Her mother Julienne, 50, is an artist and her older sister Alice, 30, works for a magazine and has represented Britain in a number of marathons, including London and New York.

I don't see these achievements as being 'steeped in success'. Many of my friends are artists; my daughter - and other people I know - have worked for magazines; and my brother has also 'represented Britain' (WTF?) in a number of marathons. This is just normal life. No, Mr Edwards obviously felt it was necessary to 'sex up' the story so that we could flail our arms in horror and despair that even such a 'successful' family could be contaminated by the evils of drug-culture and violence. Why is this necessary? Why can't it be enough that a young life has been tragically shortened as a result of appalling violence, whatever the woman's educational background is? Is it really so much worse that her assailant was failed by the expensive education system in which he was nurtured (and which apparently attempts to 'play down' the grasp that our drug culture has in its midst, for the sake of discretion of course), than any other young person who may be similarly let down by the failings of their inner city schools, or the lack of opportunity offered to them by their rural communities?

It's this sort of insidious journalism that irritates me. We see reported – en passant – endless stories of daily human heartbreak that befall our society's underclass, but when we learn (shock horror) that a marathon runner's sister has been horribly murdered, our indignation should apparently be further heightened to the point of gross outrage.

It's no surprise that the BBC has been accused of misleading reportage in respect of the Queen's supposed outburst during a photo shoot. This is another example of sexing up the facts to make our self-righteous anger seem more justified. Really, they're all at it – but it just won't do, you know. It won't do at all.