Maybe I am making too big of a deal out of this…but I tend to think not.  KARK (the Little Rock’s NBC affiliate) made the following post on Facebook earlier today in regard to breaking news that 4-year old Caleb Linn’s body had been found after a several day search:

This is insensitive at best, hideously classless at worst.  Using the death of a child to solicit ‘likes’ in an effort to promote KARK’s Facebook page?  Oh, I’m sorry, ’prayers’…because clicking a button on the internet is now the moral equivalent of petitioning God, obviously.

And before you think this was just an oversight or a mistake, you should see their Twitter feed, where they actually had the nerve to ask people to retweet Caleb’s photo ‘to send your thoughts and prayers to the family.’  Because that will really help his family.  I just really cannot think of any situation in which this is appropriate.

This is exactly the type of sensationalism that turns off otherwise informed citizens from local news coverage.  Furthermore, this explicit self-promotion at the expense of the feelings of this child’s family is absolutely despicable.

I hope KARK pulls the post–as of 9:35 CST tonight, it is still live–and apologizes to the family.  That is literally the least they could do.

Retweeting Praying for the family & would pray ’like’ if KARK decides to take the high road.

Nic Horton