THE death of TV presenter Caroline Flack has resulted in an acute sense of national loss, which we should all feel and absorb. Why wouldn’t we? After all, isn’t it a tragedy when a vibrant 40 year old life is surrendered?

But we can’t be blinded by the grief to the extent that blame is blasted around like shotgun pellets, particularly in the direction of the media.

This week on Newsnight, Guardian journalist Joan Smith claimed that Flack’s death “has rightly put the tabloids back in the dock.” And hundreds of celebrities and members of the public, it’s claimed, have backed calls for a so-called Caroline’s Law against media intrusion.

Laura Whitmore, who succeeded Flack as host of Love Island for the current series, suggested media coverage contributed to her friend’s death.

“To the press, the newspapers, who create clickbait, who demonise and tear down success, we’ve had enough,” said Whitmore on her BBC Radio 5 live show. She cites “journalists and Twitter warriors” as to blame.

Labour leadership hopeful Sir Keir Starmer also joined the chorus of the enraged. He criticised mainstream media outlets for “amplifying” damaging social media posts about Flack, and signalled he would take action to “diversify” the press if he won the race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn.

Really? Let’s have a look at the “amplification.” A very famous television presenter finds herself accused (allegedly) of battering her boyfriend over the head while he was asleep and police are called. A previous boyfriend had posted screen shots of their non-disclosure agreement preventing him from discussing their relationship, along with the message, “abuse has no gender.”

Now, let’s go back to Joan Smith’s comments. Smith is also chair of Violence Against London’s Women and Girls. What if a man had allegedly hit a woman over the head while asleep? Would Smith expect arrest? Of course.

Fellow leadership contender Lisa Nandy said social media companies could not be left to police themselves, suggesting the current situation was like the “Wild West”. And she’s right.

But newspapers aren’t peopled by Billy the Kids or Annie Oakleys.

They are peopled by those who work to boundaries. The press obey the law. They have complaints procedures. Professional guidelines. Social media doesn't.

Labour MP Kate Osamor wrote of the Caroline Flack tragedy: “The trolling and abuse she suffered at the hands of the media was relentless.”

Hold on, right there. Newspapers don’t troll. Social media does.

Don’t get me wrong: the Daily Mail’s online material didn’t stint on its all-too comprehensive coverage of the life and troubled times of Caroline Flack. The Sun ran the pictures of Flack’s post (alleged) assault blood pictures (Flack said the blood was hers). But neither have blood on their hands.

One journalist wrote of how she felt she knew the presenter because of their 'connection' on Instagram, and as such felt the death all the more. Well, yes. But that misses the real point: Caroline Flack spent much of her life on social media because she had been desperate to become famous since appearing in school pantos, certainly by the age of 17 when she attended stage school.

Flack knew all about relatability. She wanted to connect. Hits. And as such, thoughts kept private were rare to Caroline Flack.

Yesterday there was a picture in the tabloids of Holly Willoughby skiing with her family in France. Caroline Flack didn’t have that structure. She had a madcap life. She had a fling with Prince Harry. She had an affair with a 16-year-old pop star, with a famous rugby player.

Princess Diana wasn’t killed by the media. She was killed after her car was driven at 110kmh in a 50kmh zone into the side of a concrete pillar by a drunk driver.

Caroline Flack most likely died because she couldn’t cope with the life which had built up around her – and which she feared would be taken from her.

The reality is when you place a fragile person into a very unfragile world such as reality television you often have calamitous results.

Comedian Russell Brand sums up where we need to go as a society. “The line that separates people who kill themselves and people that don’t is vague and uncertain. It is a line within each of us, not between.”

He’s right. We need to think about how vulnerable our friends may be. And we need massive investment in our mental health programmes. But what we also need is the likes of Keir Starmer to concentrate on his own problems.