On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 6:20 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote:
> (SNIP) I appreciate what you are saying Pgage, but in none of my journalism > classes was I ever taught "Be a journalist unless it is dangerous, in > which case be a coward." Once again -- big shock -- journalists failed > in their responsibility to serve the public. They were there... they > were on scene... they were in the skies above... they were there, and > then they left. There is no way that isn't a failure on the part of > the journalists. There is no way the police didn't overstep their > boundaries by ordering journalists away. There is no way the police > (and parent companies) didn't overstep their boundaries by ordering > the media to stop posting on Twitter. (SNIP) I am not surprised you were not taught that, and of course nothing I have written here would suggest that journalists should be taught that. They should be taught however not to report information in the midst of a life threatening police crisis that clearly would help a murderer escape and perhaps kill some more. And they should be taught to not make crises worse by becoming the story, and putting their own life in harm's way while interfering with those who are trying to end it. But they also should be taught to exercise their own best judgement as to when these kinds of crisis and safety issues justify stepping back. We will see what we come to know about what happened today - I think 2 hours is not really sufficient time to judge our ability to come to conclusions about who did what. It is not too far fetched for me to believe that the sheriffs went in there to execute him, and did not want anyone to see. If they did, that would be worse than anything the criminal himself did. OTOH, I know some of the people who died in Waco, and some who didn't but could have, and I have never been a big fan of the view that the feds were responsible for what happened that day. They may have made bad decisions, but the person who was most responsible for what happened in Waco that day was David Koresh. My mind is open, but I suspect we will find that the person who is most responsible for what happened in Big Bear -- -- 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 --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
