Read all about it

I don't buy a paper, and rarely pay attention to what any of them have to say.  The day before yesterday, I was confronted with a perfect example of why, upon seeing the Daily Star front page, which was running a headline about the Germanwings crash.

'PILOT HAD A DEATH WISH YEARS AGO' ran the headline in huge bold letters, proclaiming in one short sentence the incompetence of the airline, the prior warning signs shown by the pilot who appears to have decided to kill himself and take a whole bunch of innocent people with him.  And then underneath the main headline, this:

'On gay website before flight'

If you bothered to read the article (I skimmed it, so horrified was I by the headlines) it elaborated that upon searching through the pilot's recent internet history, investigators had found that he had been visiting many sites with 'disturbing content' surrounding death, suicide etc, as well as some 'perverse' sites.  It also elaborated that he had been taunted by various people since his last long term (female) partner, nicknamed 'Tomato' (in reference to the fact that although most people think of Tomatoes as vegetables, they are actually a fruit - the level of sophistication is astounding,, obviously).

The fact of his being bullied - perhaps even by co-workers - may be relevant in informing why he was at a point that he felt he no longer wanted to live.  His internet history flagging up various sites full of disturbing content may also have some relevance to his state of mind.  But the Star chose to run, as it's secondary headline 'On gay website before flight'.

What are the implications of those two lines read together by any passing man, woman or (more importantly) child, without any of the accompanying context?

- That the pilot was surfing on gay websites literally minutes before takeoff.
- That maybe his self loathing at being (or thinking he might be) gay caused him to do what he did.
- That his being gay, or choosing to look at gay websites in any way was of relevance to his killing of all those people.

I was horrified.  I wasn't 'offended'.  I wasn't 'getting my knickers in a twist'.  I was literally and genuinely horrified.  I've waited two days to even write about it because I was hoping that MAYBE I would read or hear somewhere that the Daily Star had been somehow censured for what I see as blatant homophobia, and encouragement of hatred based on sexual orientation.  I was confident that this would occur, having seen the firestorm of criticism that brewed around the tabloids portrayal of mental illness and their choice of words like 'madman'.  Everyone sure jumped on that bandwagon to make sure that those suffering from mental illness were not unduly discriminated against by the media.  And yet the Daily Star said this, and I see nothing.  Go ahead, google Daily Star Headline Tuesday 31st March.  See how many returns you get of articles, blogs posts, hell ANYTHING discussing this.

Homophobia isn't an issue in this country?  I wish.