The Times of India - Not For You and Me?

The Times of India's website carries a report on how the late Andhra CM, YSR Reddy met a sudden death on his Bell chopper. With the report, it also carries a picture of the body of the CM, that was found by the search party more than 24 hours of the disappearance. The picture is probably the most horrifying picture I have ever seen on any leading media house's website. Charred remains of the body of a man beyond visual recognition are out there for full view. A link below invites you to see more pictures. Its gory enough to make the average human being feel sick and maybe puke out.

As I write this, below the link and the story are about 37 comments posted by people like you and me. Out of these 37, at least 26 people have condemned or requested (or both) the TOI editors to remove the picture of the corpse as it defies sensitivities and sensibilities. The comments section is moderated by someone at TOI, surely not someone like you and me — for moderation means that the comments are read. And since the picture is still there after 24 hours of the story, it probably means that someone at TOI does not give a damn.

But yes, the story features in the "Most commented" section of the website.

I think responsible organizations and media houses draw their own lines in reporting and journalism. Ideally, I think every single word and picture that goes into the website should pass through the same filtering that is applied to its counterpart in the print media. I raise up this point because the same article in print, in yesterday's TOI's copy does not carry this gory picture. Clearly, the filtering mechanism, if it ever existed for Times Of India's website, failed here. And since the forum below the article at the website is moderated, it would be a safe assumption that the comments of the readers were read but those guys at the TOI chose to discard them. It is dangerous — a newspaper is supposed to be for the people. Is this newspaper run by insensitive incompetents?

Among all things, it baffles me what TOI achieved by letting this picture be a part of their online article. Does a degree of real life horror and vulgarity help them getting more hits? And more comments? Even if the comments are nothing but a collective condemnation of the report?