Monk intimate with dog; suffers heart attack – do we really need to know?

Yesterday one of my friends told me about a story they saw on the Thai news earlier that day. Some people, drawn by the sound of a dog howling, discovered a monk in the act of intimacy with a dog. The dog did not seem to be consenting. Shortly after being discovered, the 65 year old monk fainted – he suffered from a heart attack. He was taken to hospital, where he is now recovering. News article here (Thai language only).

Jokes aside, it’s speaking the obvious to say the act is a revolting one, and will only serve for the public to lose even more faith in the men of the cloth. With the constant flow of stories on monks who are indeed behaving badly, who can blame them?

Thinking back over the years, I can’t remember ever hearing or seeing such a story having being reported in the mainstream media, on both TV and online print. Maybe something will pop up on a blog or online forum somewhere, but that’s about it. Does the public (and yes, under aged viewers) really need to know about these sordid stories during their prime time viewing? Wouldn’t it be better just to arrest the guy, strip him of his monk-hood, put him on trial, lock him up and then (hopefully) never hear from him again?? Report on it locally if necessary, but not as a national news item.

The Thai media aren’t exactly known for good taste and classy reporting – with the filming and printing of dead bodies (sometimes without the consent of the deceased family) commonplace in the news. Maybe they just love a scandal that involves a monk – I’m sure they’d argue they’re protecting the public from such a fiend. But there are some topics that really don’t deserves the prime-time attention.