Editorial: Trolls quick to seize on deaths

Tragedy and disaster can bring out the best in people, but also the worst, to the extent that many forget the shattered lives and random deaths at the centre of it all.

It didn't take long after Tuesday's bombing in Boston which killed three people for several trolls to take to social media wondering why the media are so interested in it.

Especially, they said, on the same day dozens died in Iraq and the US bombed an Afghan wedding party, killing 30.

Many missed the fact the wedding bombing actually happened more than 10 years ago.

But the original question is valid: why are three deaths in Boston so much more interesting to us than three dozen deaths in the Middle East?

First ask yourself - which story would you read first?

I don't imagine it's that New Zealanders place more value on an American life than, say, an Iraqi life, but that a story about a rare bomb attack at a major sporting event in the United States - an event Kiwis are involved in - is more likely to engage readers and viewers than another story about mass killings in Iraq.

That's not to say we shouldn't care about what's happening in Iraq, but counting bodies to prove a point is obscene - it's not a competition.

It's disturbing that deaths like those in Boston are seized upon by critics as opportunities for political point-scoring.