I was disgusted when I read the news of the suicide bombing in Gulshan e-Iqbal Park, committed by a terrorist group that splintered from the Taliban. Suicide bombings were always particularly disturbing and horrifying to me. There is a great sense of fear knowing that somebody will attempt to kill others with absolutely no regard for their own life. These extremists can't be reasoned with, for the reward for their faith is eternal bliss in the kingdom of their heaven. They believe what they're doing is the word of god -- that it brings them ever so closer to their god.
The narrative didn’t surprise me, and neither did the videos. The reaction was immediate, the videos of the devastation poured into the digital world. Videos of bodies laying limp in the streets, puddles of blood and viscera scattered. Videos of emergency services scampering to get the injured into ambulances, some of those requiring immediate treatment, not 10 meters away from the bodies of their fellow neighbors and friends.
Dozens upon dozens were dead, the number rising as the day went on, with the casualties at the hundreds. The devastation that occurred in the park -- where families were eating, laughing, playing, just living -- was a far cry louder than the recent bombings in Brussels, which occurred just days before. The resulting news story that is born from events like these are powerful. There's conflict, we're invested in the lives of people who suffer the same way our loved ones have suffered. The ongoing threat of terrorist organizations continues to affect all parts of the world. There are magnitude and relevance, the body count is devastating. This is just another brutality in the wake of a chaotic, bubbling middle eastern pot. In reality, that's probably the main reason we didn't hear much about it here in western media.
Terrorist attacks always sell in the media; conflict is the biggest news event worth covering. This story, however, didn’t just have an attack to its name. Families were killed. The bombings took place in a populated area. A place where people went to relax with their families and escape the grim realities of the day-to-day. Any other decent human could see themselves in the shoes of those whose lives were taken away unjustly. Where was the breaking news coverage of the bombing on cable news? I always expect breaking news from big newspaper platforms online, like The New York Times or The Washington Post. Attacks like these, that aren’t geographically Western, are seemingly never given priority in breaking cable news. I’d still say it has the element of importance -- I absolutely believe that -- but it seems that some media outlets don’t agree. One quick google search of the event on Fox's site shows their coverage of the event began Monday, the day after the attack.
We could go even deeper and look at how some of the bombings that have occurred in Western countries spurred serious social media attention. Facebook users were able to tint their profile pictures to support Paris, to support Brussels; yet there was no tint for the Pakistani flag. There was nary an outcry on the injustice that had happened.
The attack in Pakistan is a stark reminder of the ongoing situation in the Middle East and surrounding nations. At the end of the day, that makes it deserving of breaking video coverage on cable. Maybe, then, more people will be motivated to listen.
