A pall across a city. The media scrambles to cover every angle …

Seven pages in the Herald Sun alone. And for what? Some, with no connection to this poor family, will wallow in it. Who knows why. It’s too awful to read, surely. It intrudes on a family that has never needed privacy as much. It feeds sadness and anger but little else.

In Sydney, the press got hold of a handful of “one-punch” attacks and forced the government to act. Never mind that domestic violence — insidious, in the shadows — is the greater terror for so many.

Luke Batty died in a horrific case of domestic violence. If there’s any role for Melbourne’s tabloids over the days and weeks ahead in this tragedy, perhaps they could take up the baton.