I have a harder time with the broadcast of someone being injured or killed rather than seeing footage of them after the injury or death, though I'm not a fan of either. For me this is true whether or not I'm seeing this via a broadcast or in person. It strikes me as disrespectful. I also don't get why people like to slow down to look at accident scenes.
And I would criticize Fox (or whomever had the Series that year) if they were replaying Piazza getting stuck/cut with a bat shard during the game. Thankfully they'd be too busy showing crowd shots to do so. I honestly think that the broadcast of the accident is a separate issue from the safety concerns about the track (which preceded the luger's death), and I think the death will be sufficient for action, and not the fact it was broadcast. If this was Innsbruck 1964, where there was another Olympic fatality in a training run, but no chance of showing footage as quickly as today (if there was any), I'm pretty confident that the press would do their job via print and light some kind of fire under the authorities if there was a safety issue. The press can no longer give context without pictures? Then they're being lazy, incompetent bastards. If the IOC or the Vancouver Olympic authorities pad the course *because footage got out* - and not just because the man died - that's on those authorities and not the suits who thought it a good idea to broadcast someone's fatal accident. The press couldn't raise enough of a stink by the simple statement that a man died and the track wasn't changed? Then the press stinks. This was a training run taking place before the official start of the games, so this - like the other fatalities connected the Games - would not have been broadcast had there been no deaths. This wasn't the case of a fatality during a planned live or taped broadcast. The conscious choice to show this had to be made for the footage to air. It was sensationalist, IMO, and didn't further the story. David ________________________________ From: PGage <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sat, February 13, 2010 4:31:26 AM Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] Not exactly the best thing... But in this case, we have a news organization airing footage of a death in the event it is covering. We might criticize ESPN for showing video of a hypothetical Piazza killing bat shard from Clemmons in heave rotation on SportsCenter, but would we really criticize Fox for showing it a few times during the game if it was covering it? If NBC starts showing the video in question every night, or featuring it in their promos for the Olympics, or if Bob Costas goes on the Tonight Show Leno's first week back and shows the video, then I will understand the criticism. But to show it briefly, and in the context of reporting the news of the day at an event they are covering seems simply to be doing their job. I guess more than just having a difference of opinion, I am not understanding the underlying principle being invoked by critics of NBC. Is it that news organizations should never show images of dead people under any circumstance? What is the rationale for such a principle? I wonder Dave if you or others would feel differently about this if, as a result of seeing this video, the organizers of the Olympics decide to pad those pillars, or modify the course, to try to avoid another serious injury? Of if they fail to make these changes, and there is another serious or fatal incident on that track - wouldn't the public have a right to know the context so they could make an informed judgment about the cause of such "accidents" (quotations marks because they might arguably not be accidents if their likelihood was predicted ahead of time). I am surprised that so much of the email in my inboox (not from this list, but from friends) tonight was to express outrage at NBC for simply showing us what happened, and none directed at the organizers of the games who seemed to place so little value on the safety of the athletes. -- 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
