Comments on: ‘Morbo’ and the Spanish fascination with emotional hell

By: Beckett

Beckett — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:46:15 +0000

@Victor,
One of the biggest criticisms in the U.S. about the media coverage of the Iraq war is that it has been sanitized and has not shown a lot of images showing the carnage there. So, which U.S. news sources are you talking about? Or are you just making a blanket generalization based on what you think things are like in the U.S.?

By: RayTibbitts

RayTibbitts — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:42:36 +0000

@Victor: I agree, the ‘morbo’ is not exclusively Spain’s. I watch more TV than I should, in both countries, and I agree that the amount of airtime, and the amount of repetition, of horribly violent or tragical stories is very comparable.

Just one observation, though. You can sit down for dinner in the U.S. and leave the network news on, and make it through your meal without ever seeing images that would turn your stomach. And on the rare occasion that they would show the actual human carnage of the aftermath of a car bomb (etc) they warn you before hand, to let you know they are about to put something gross onscreen.
You can’t be guaranteed the same when you sit down in Spain. But at least in Spain they take longer than 80 seconds to “Go Around the World.”

By: Victor

Victor — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:43:02 +0000

The illness, the brutality or any feeling of this nature is not inherent nor exclusive of Spain. For example, the Americans, by example, have not put pictures of their deads in the attacks to New York, but they don’t doubt to put pictures of all the Iraqis that have killed since the war began

By: Criss

Criss — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:56:07 +0000

The problem is not exclusive to Spain – here in the US, all we see is this pretend news. “If it bleeds, it leads” is the credo by which they live. The opening news story features a three-year-old raped and murdered in a state clear on the other side of the country – this “news” is not in any way relevant to anyone living in my state, but it’s gory and will gather ratings.

Graeme (and others) brings up a good point: sometimes unpleasant images help stir us into action, as they did with Vietnam and, aparently, with domestic abuse problems in Spain. But the examples brought up here (plane crash) don’t fall into that category – we already know plane crashes are bad, and do what we can to avoid them. Shoving cameras and mikes in the faces of grieving family members does nothing more than satisfy our sick, morbid curiosity; a sick desire to watch others suffer. (On a lower “level”, I was appalled and disgusted with the reporters during the Olympics who shoved a mike in the face of the athlete who has just lost – even as the poor girl is crying – instead of interviewing the athlete who won the gold. Why do we need to rub salt on the wound? Why can’t we be happy celebrating with the winner?)

If, as Pepino mentioned, the media were talking to the people in charge of the airplanes (and of making them fly safely, without crashing), then the morbid images might serve a purpose – they would rally the people into action to hold the people in charge accountable for their action (making sure there are enough security checks before the plane takes off, etc.) But, alas, that’s not what the media does.

Which is why I refuse to watch the news (other than The Daily Show… which plays on a Comedy Channel. Says a lot about the state of my country, doesn’t it?)

By: soy pescador

soy pescador — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:18:19 +0000

I think it is a case of supply and demand. When the public stop asking for sensationalism then spanish TV will have to switch to something else. The dead are more alive than the living . I have also witnessed the same morbid approach as to when some friend of a friends aunt or twice removed relative dies there is this chain of phone calls and need to go to the funeral even though you last saw or heard from this person 20 years ago.
Fascinating ????

By: ValenciaSon

ValenciaSon — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:00:49 +0000

Maybe Spain needs a Michael Moore.

By: Parubin

Parubin — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:34:16 +0000

I agree with the comments that say that sometimes ‘the horror picture’ has a reason because it is a denouncing visual report so powerful that will draw the public’s attention towards the issue.
But in this case, I can´t see the point in providing ‘this information’ other than the insane morbid curiosity.
This kind of curiosity may be indeed different from one country to another.
An interesting case of this (sorry if it goes a bit off-topic) is domestic violence cases (or wife battering). In Spain, this type of crime get a lot of attention in the media, and every single case is reported nation-wide. This, which maybe was born out of insane curiosity, has helped to strengthen legislation against agressors and to make it easy for all potential victims to report an incident. But the curiosity for this type of crime still persists, and Spain is wrongly believed (both within Spain and abroad) to have a strong problem of domestic violence, when it is quite the opposite. Spain is among the lowest countries in Europe of ‘domestic violence cases per capita’. In other EU countries the situation is worse, but it isn´t reported as heavily as in Spain. Maybe because the media or the public is not intereseted in these morbid affairs which they consider ‘private issues’, so there is not a public awareness as in Spain.
Where to draw the line?. Most of the times it seems easy to decide if it is in the public interest or not to publish disturbing piece of news (picture or not).

By: MotoMujer

MotoMujer — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:21:16 +0000

Images of war, genocide and the abundant other similar tragedies bring to our attention actions which need to be stopped, while this recent event and the medias exploitation of it is a sign that, above all, the media (world wide) lacks the moral fortitude to know the difference between right and wrong (just another reason for not watching TV).

By: David Jackson

David Jackson — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:27:52 +0000

“morbo” is a difficult one. For example, our maths teacher in Bachiller was not pretty, but extruded “sex appeal” to the sweating 17 years old. “No es guapa, pero tiene morbo” was the comment.
Rather then “morbid curiosity” the correct translation might be “‘unusual’ excitement[of the senses]“.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:16:35 +0000

Well good thing for you, there are thousands of gory pics online for you to enjoy. Check out rotten.com or thenausea.com and have fun. But why do you feel the need to have gory pictures 4 hours after the event, when it’s simply an accident? And your mum, no offense, sounds a little batty. Gory pictures of a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, etc., reminds people of the lunacy of killing others for religion and politics. But gory pictures of some poor chap who just got on an airplane and is now in pieces? What’s the point?