On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 2:00 AM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 10:53 PM, Ben Scripps <[email protected]>wrote: > >> On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 1:14 AM, Joe Coughlin <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> > News often isn't pretty. >> >> And yet the story *can* be told without the video. >> >> I guess the part that I found most offensive wasn't that they ran the >> video at all (a questionable decision, but one for which I can see the >> argument for), but that they ran it three times in rapid succession, >> back to back to back. >> -- >> > > I am getting a lot of email from friends and acquaintances about this > tonight, but I am not understanding it. Speaking only of NBC's coverage, I > don't see much to criticize. Brian Williams introduced the footage, and > warned the audience it would be difficult to watch. But I can't imagine NBC > not showing the footage if a baseball player was killed by a pitch that hit > his head, for example. Particularly in this case, where there are questions > about the nature of the track (there were lots of concerns expressed in > advance that the track was too dangerous) it is clearly part of the story to > show how the accident happened, and if it is unreasonably hard. This is what > justifies showing it three times in rapid succession (but slow motion) so > people could begin to understand what had happened. The video was not bloody > (except I think for the shot of the attempt to revive the athlete with CPR). > > While tragic, and very difficult, this decision to show the video does not > seem like a particularly difficult judgment call to me at all. > > I agree. The event happened so quickly that you had to show it more than once and/or slowly in order to see what had happened. I was better informed about what had happened after seeing it. Yes, it was upsetting. It was appropriate to warn viewers about what they were about to see, but TV news is show and tell. They did exactly that.
> -- > TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "TV or Not TV" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en > -- +++++++++++++++ Joe Coughlin http://www.twitter.com/inturnaround -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
