[**It felt as though lines were crossed and decisions were made**](https://www.football365.com/news/diogo-jota-clickbait-tragic-death-mediwatch) when certain elements of the media rushed to publish stories promising the ‘first pictures’ of the aftermath of the car crash which tragically killed Diogo Jota and Andre Silva on Thursday.
That the websites of the **Daily Mirror**, **Daily Star**, **Daily Express** and most unforgivably **Liverpool.com** have chosen not to delete those articles after 24 hours tells us they think it is absolutely fine, that it is completely fair game and not at all a despicable way to react to such a tragedy.
Honestly, how can a dedicated Liverpool fan website in particular not only think it’s alright to post the ‘harrowing image’ ‘depicting the aftermath’ of a scene in which a Liverpool player and his brother lost their lives, but also to keep that story up and even prominent on their homepage?
The common denominator between those four outlets in particular should be ashamed. Put simply: Reach plc can fuck off.
There is a weird belief that people seem to need to see the wreckage – **The Sun** and the **MailOnline** use that one specific image of the green Lamborghini frequently in their coverage – or a grainy picture of Jota’s actual wife crying outside the mortuary where she has had to help identify the bodies of her husband and brother-in-law.
How is it at all necessary to have to point out how ghoulish and soulless that is? What made the MailOnline and Daily Star feel they were above calls to respect the privacy of a grief-stricken family? Not that those calls for privacy should be required to prevent long-lens pictures being taken of an understandably devastated widow at an unthinkably difficult time.
And where does the MailOnline get off thinking this sort of headline is okay?
> ‘Diogo Jota’s physio lifts lid on his final hours and the twist of fate which ended his life as he insists Liverpool star, 28, was NOT ‘partying’ before deadly Lamborghini ‘fireball’ crash’
Mediawatch had not seen a single suggestion they were ‘partying’ or indeed doing anything other than driving to catch a ferry until this. What absolutely abhorrent, risible reporting that is, for myriad reasons.
There is a need to question whether other parts of the reporting are in the public interests whatsoever.
The Sun claim that the ‘Lamborghini supercar ‘in Diogo Jota crash’ had been recalled over terrifying safety issues’, before admitting in the same story ‘there is no indication that any other safety issues that had been subject to recalls over recent years played a part in Jota’s tragic crash’, and ‘it is also not known what specific Huracan model the footballer was driving when he crashed’.
The Daily Star reckons it is vital to make sure Liverpool understandably cancelling a phased start to pre-season which would have seen some players return on Friday is clickbaited to ‘Liverpool make key decision over Diogo Jota’s teammates after star’s horror crash death’.
Even the reports of what he said in phone calls ‘just hours’ before losing his life seem crass to go over.
While some simply know no better than to dramatise, monetise, sensationalise and tabloidify even death itself – and that is no defence of the Mail or Mirror, who have been especially egregious in abusing their platform unforgivably over the last 24 hours or so – there are zero excuses in the case of, say, the **Liverpool Echo**.
They knew precisely what they were doing with a headline of ‘Alexander Isak and Premier League players lead tributes to Liverpool star Diogo Jota,’ designed to utilise any SEO authority they have on the name of a footballer who happens to be a Liverpool transfer target, but also just a person offering his condolences along with a great many others.
That story has thankfully been deleted – although it is still able to be seen on and clicked through from Google, leading straight to the Echo homepage, because ultimately clicks are clicks.
All in all, it has been a masterclass in despicable, reprehensible tragedy exploitation masquerading as journalism from the Mail and those Reach titles. When The Sun are showing you how to broadly respond to an awful event involving Liverpool and death, you know you’ve fucked up.