David Carradine, an actor I know best from Kill Bill Vol. 2 (he was Bill), has certainly had some bizarre rumors flying about the manner in which he died June 3. Most scandalously, Bangkok tabloid Thai Rath ran a photo of his body on its cover Saturday, June 7, when the body was first discovered hanging in a closet of a hotel room in downtown Bangkok. Reports describe the details – that Carradine’s testicles and neck were tied with shoelaces, which police say suggest he may have died from masturbation – as auto-erotica.
Gnarly circumstance or not, I don’t think the paper should have ever run the photo. But that’s my knee-jerk reaction, especially after taking a second to read the feelings of Carradine’s family. What journalistic purpose did it serve? What about minimizing harm?
Separately, during my rake of the Web for this story, I came across this
. Apparently the Thai Rath has some strange photojournalistic principles going on in general.
Basically two papers covered the same event and the Thai Rath did some Photoshop work and removed a photo of the king from one the photos. The other paper ran the real photo on page one.
Something about the rules of the Thai monarchy and the king always getting the top fold if present in any picture, which is what the student on the far right is holding – either way, clearly an effective way to look stupid quick.
