Originally Posted by
Sylar
I feel there's two strands of discussion throughout this thread - I don't think people are being 'heartless' or 'disgusting' around the fate of these particular individuals.
There IS a valid conversation to be had about the extent of resources, time and effort that's being put into finding them (and the media coverage it's all receiving) compared to other ocean-based tragedies. There was a boat sank yesterday making its way from West Africa to the Canaries - people fleeing war, destitution and poverty in search of a better life - 35 dead and it didn't even get onto the BBC front page. Because the Government-supporting rhetoric from the BBC (and other media outets) is that these people don't matter worth a **** - but these extremely privileged individuals who signed up voluntarily for an extremely risky venture on an un-certified vessel are receiving wall to wall coverage, with navy, air force, scientific organisations, charity organisations all scrambling to help them.
Their wealth doesn't mean they're not deserving of sympathy, but equally, it shouldn't give them some kind of priority status when something goes wrong.