Vultures bearing TV cameras

In the aftermath of a giant quake in Pingtung county, Taiwan, the press descend upon the scene:

But what really got my goat was Thursday's spectacle of a child -- whose mother was killed and home destroyed by the quake -- being harassed by reporters from SET, ETTV, CTI, CTV and ERA (there may have been others), asking: "Where is your home? Where is your home? Where is your home?"

The child, needless to say, was upset and mute throughout.

When I see reporters harassing a bereaved minor in this way I think of Thomas Hobbes. Yep, Hobbes of "state of nature" fame. If these turd reporters are so bereft of professional responsibility that they would add to a child's suffering, then they enter the State of Nature. The Law of the Jungle. They and their studio supervisors, I submit, should have no complaint if a Taiwanese Leviathan appears from nowhere and beats the living shit out of them.

And don't come blubbing to Johnny about press freedom, my friends, because each and every one of you just lost the right to call yourselves journalists.

The article I linked to did not mention this, but the child in question have not yet been told that his mother is dead. The reporters swarming him asked him whether he misses his mom to try and ramp up the pathos factor of the footage. That was really quite sickening.