Just what I was thinking. A lot of very self righteous "I've complained to the Press Complaints... etc etc ad infinitum
Mate, have a word with yourself. I'm not looking to swell my ego or any equally crass dribble nor do I need to "look in the mirror". If you seriously think that a couple of comments on a minor internet forum directed at the website of a major national newspaper somehow has any bearing on the traffic of that site then I'd suggest you need to have another think about how the internet works. Mail Online cracks 75 million unique users a month, the highest traffic of any UK online newspaper. An awful lot of people knew the identity of the deceased a long time before his family would've liked them to.
I stand by my sentiment. I have never complained to the PCC before as I normally don't care about what the press get up to and can generally write them off as sad little bottom feeders. On this occasion however they flagrantly went against the wishes of a grieving family to get their "scoop". I saw these crap excuses for humanity pouring all over the families of the crew of XV179 when that was shot down and am frankly appalled to see it happen again. I do not wish to think that my elderly parents would be subjected to this revolting treatment were I to stick my aircraft into a hillside one day.
You can't write off their behaviour as being a result of "our" desire for 24hr news either - Gadaffi getting caught after 6 month+ multinational combat operation and civil war has relevance and is newsworthy; agencies will fight to be the first to break that. A Red Arrow pilot getting tragically killed is of course newsworthy in itself - his identity is not. You cannot compare the rush to get a picture of an enshackled Gadaffi on to our screens to poking microphones through the letterboxes of grieving parents hours after their loss. Every other press agency managed to maintain a certain level of decency on the matter.
I'm not an internet warrior, I don't have Bus, Outrage, Pprune on my FMT600 and I generally refrain from engaging in internet grieving for people I didn't know. I also don't have a vendetta against the Mail although I do think it is a poor excuse for a newspaper. If however you're happy with the thought that your relatives might be subjected to this sort of treatment one day then crack on with your righteousness and pass by on the other side of the road. Careful though, the air can get pretty thin up there on the moral high ground.
This line of discussion detracts from the main issue at hand here and I do not wish to be party to dragging this thread down the usual Pprune latrine of pointless arguments.