The tsunami show

Has anyone else felt uncomfortable at the fact that TV news reporters – flown in from the four corners of the globe, equipped with hi-tech cameras, tripods and all-weather gear – are able to reach distant, stricken parts of Japan more quickly than the country’s own rescue services? And to what end: to provide footage for us, their audiences?

You can’t blame the rescue services, or the journalists really, though I hope the editors are having angst-filled discussions about just why they seek such fulsome coverage. But this horrid event reveals something else in modern life that seems out of balance. The spectacle rules.