One of the things which has been of special interest to me in the wake of the bombings has been the media response to it. On the day it happened, I watched rolling news all day at my friends’ house, round the corner (the recently engaged ones, who I spent election night with. I realise it would be easier if I gave them names, so for the sake of clarity, she is Genius, he is RawSausages). Genius was at work offsite when the bombs went off, and came home around midday. RawSausages (who is a TV news producer) was at Aldgate, covering the attacks.
Prior to setting off to their house, armed with a bottle of wine to keep our blitz spirit up, I was watching Channel 4, and was discomforted by the following exchange, which to me clearly indicated the media’s desperate need for a death toll when it was still stuck at nil, between Krishnan Guru-Murthy and the head of the Royal London Hospital:
KGM: So how many patients have you admitted, and what condition are they in? HoRL: Seven serious, ten critical. KGM: And which of those conditions is worse? HoRL: Critical. KGM: So you have ten people there who might die?
The look on his face seemed to me to betray the fact that someone was saying ‘We need news – it’s at least half an hour since we found out they were bombs and not a power surge. Now find out how many have died.’
The other thing which struck me about the reporting of the bombings was the need for the press to name it. I noticed this in people around me too, and heard ‘7/7′ being used in conversation before I heard it on television. But many rejected it. As Genius said at the time ‘it doesn’t scan very well – needs another syllable really’. I had another problem with it – the enormity of the September 11th attacks meant that it deserved to have a whole day named after it. While not wanting to belittle the pain caused by the London bombings, they were not on the same scale, and therefore the name ‘7/7′ would not have the resonance of ‘9/11′. ‘Target London’ was mooted by some channels, but soon disappeared. At the moment, 7/7 seems to have gained the ascendancy, although many seem to favour the plain, non-emotive, non-bombastic, ‘London bombings’.