What makes it into the news?

I really feel touched by the killing of Emmanuel Odunewu! I didn’t know him, never met him, I still know very little about him, I don’t even know what he looks like. What I do know was that he was killed close to where I live and from what I can make out it was another senseless murder. I have received comments on this blog which paint Emmanuel as a quite, friendly young man who was clearly loved by his circle of friends.

So why is it that his death has been almost completely overlooked by the media? Why is it that my blog, with its modest readership and with limited details of the incident, is the top search result for Emmanuel Odunewu’s name? Why is a murder outside one of the biggest police stations in Europe such an insignificant story?

Perhaps I am being naïve; perhaps senseless murders are so common in London now that this killing makes no ripples in the media pond. I really hope that it is not as simple as that.

This is not the first time I have been amazed by what I have not seen in the news. I had friends in Iraq while the Princess of Wales’ Royal Regiment fought tooth and nail for over a month in Al Amara, I heard about the action from them but almost nothing in the media. Intense enough fighting to win LCpl Beharry a VC but not intense enough to hit the papers.