Bad Taste ... ? What do you think?

Today I read a news article online at the Age newspaper's website.

Click through and read it before you go further...

How did that make you feel?
Did you read the whole article?
Were you distracted or distured by the ads?

My answer are: 'Sad', 'yes' and 'yes' so I wrote the following email to scoop@theage.com.au via the link at the bottom:


I have just been reading your article: 'How suicide is ripping Aboriginal lives apart' online at http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/how-suicide-is-ripping-aboriginal-lives-apart/2007/06/17/1182018938157.html?page=2

It was saddening to read and I felt a lot of compassion towards the people and communities involved.

I found the advertisement that was displayed on the same page entirely distasteful.
For me the shiny red and powerful sports car clashes horribly with the human nature of the article and I find it extremely crass.

I am grateful that I can read your news articles online and I appreciate that funding from advertisements probably makes this possible but I think you will agree that in this case there is a clear lack of relevance to the article and a lack of sensitivity. I can't begin to imagine how Patrick Dodson or one someone else from a community who had lost someone to suicide would feel if they viewed this page.

I hope that you can give this matter some though and look forward to your response.

Regards.

Dunstan Bertschinger


...so leave me a comment and let me know what you think!