Thusha Kamaleswaran is a web hit on the Daily Mail’s child porn CCTV show
THUSHA Kamaleswaran is on the front pages of the Sun, Mail, Mirror, Telegraph and the Guardian. The tabloids lead with photos taken from CCTV footage of Thusha being shot. The ‘broadsheets’ lead with photos of the child’s face before the horror.
Thusha Kamaleswaran is five years old. Her life changed when three men with murder on their minds – Nathaniel Grant, 20, of Camberwell, Kazeem Kolawole, 19, of Kennington, and Anthony McCalla, also 19, of Streatham – chased two rivals along Stockwell Road, London.
Thusha Kamaleswaran was in the Stockwell Food and Wine store on Stockwell Road, her uncle’s shop. One of the men being hunted by the gang ran into the shop. Nathaniel Grant was on a bicycle. He had the gun. He shot two bullets into the convenience store.
One bullet hit Roshan Selvakumar, 35, in the jaw. The other bullet hit Thusha, who was “happily playing” in the aisles.
The bullet hit her chest. It passed through her body severely damaging her spine. She is paralysed throughout much of her body.
The premeditated attack was captured on the shop’s four CCTV cameras.
At the Old Bailey, Grant, Kolawole and McCalla have been convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent and the attempted murder of Roshaun Bryan.
So. Do you show footage form the attack?
The Guardian‘s web news editor Jonathan Hayes points to the Mail’s story – “The most appalling CCTV you’ll ever see: Moment girl, five, is gunned down and paralysed as she dances in shop” – and says:
“Even for you Mail Online, this is shameless and sick to sell a story on.”
The Mail’s newspaper is less prurient. The paper prefers: “CUT DOWN IN A CORNER SHOP.”
Those Mail readers hoping to see the video of a child being shot are left disappointed. It’s just stills from Anorak’s partners at the Press Association.
The Mail’s words online and offline are the same. It’s that headline that =alters. It that online headline sick, a desperate attempt to win readers, turning a child’s suffering into pornography that appeals to web users sat at desks at peeping at phones? Has the Mail just got it right, showing that it understands that online readers will tolerate more and expect more than those stuck on the dead tree press? It’s about youth, isn’t it. Do older readers who spend 55p on the Mail need to see a dying child? No. But the more fickle web reders – younger and keen to interact with an opinion – love the sensation of exotic death and injury.
The Mail wants to win the web wars with bullshit and porn – even the underage stuff. And it’s winning…
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Posted: 27th, March 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
