Do we deserve this barbarity?
Do we deserve this barbarity?

Can the killing of a gorilla in a zoo in Cincinnati, committed to save the life of a child, unleash more emotion and more media coverage than the decapitation of 21 Christians in a beach in Libya? Yes.

The Media Research Center reveals that mainstream television stations dedicated six times as much air time to the death of the gibbon Harambe than they did to the barbaric execution by the Islamic State of 21 Coptic Christians.  

Saturday, May 28, security officers fired at the gorilla to protect a three year old child who fell into the cage. In the five days after the death of the animal, the three major US networks devoted to this story 1 hour, 28 minutes and 17 seconds.

For Christians, only silence. For Yazidis, greater silence.
In February 2015, a group of Islamist thugs dressed in black slaughtered 21 Coptic Christians on a beach near Tripoli. The Media Research Center has calculated that ABC, CBS and NBC spent a total of only 14 minutes and 30 seconds to report the massacre of those Christians: less than one-sixth of the time spent on the transmissions about the gorilla.

The sadness over the death of a beautiful animal has been transformed into a platform for feelings directed against the child’s parents from the working class. From CNN to MSNBC, the media whipped up hysteria against the “negligence” of the parents of the child who ended up in the cage, Deonne Dickerson and Michelle Gregg. An online petition asking the State of Ohio to remove the custody of children from his parents raised 400,000 signatures, an impressive number.

How many signatures were collected in favor of the Eastern Christians?

A group of protesters distressed by the death of the gorilla organized vigils at the zoo to mourn the animal. For Christians, only silence. For Yazidis, greater silence.

We don’t recall the same hysteria against the parents of European volunteers who joined the Islamic State; indeed, there was even understanding towards them when their children left to become members of the Middle East butchers.

Jack Hanna, a zookeeper, said in a statement to the media: “I bet my life on this, that child would not be here today”, if zoo’s officials would have not killed the gorilla. Unless your name is Peter Singer, there is a precise distinction between the value of the life of a gorilla and that of a child.

What the media lacks is at least the same compassion for the Christian victims of the butchers of ISIS. But perhaps the media just gives us what people want: “bread and circuses” as was said by the Romans.

Is it possible that the killing of that caged primate moves public opinion more than 19 Yazidi girls burned in a cage by Islamist rapists?

Do not be surprised that the next step was Orlando. 

We deserve barbarity in this world turned upside down!