Car Chase Suicide

[rain_gryphon]

So then, I took FOX News to task for their hypocrisy:

I'm sorry to see FOX News apologizing for showing the car chase
suspect's suicide on live TV. While the car chase initially wasn't
worth reporting upon, and should not have been on the air live to
start with, once it HAD been reported live, further developments, and
especially something so dramatic as a death, became breaking news,
deserving of live coverage. If you didn't intend to report live on
all outcomes of the story, then you shouldn't have covered the story
live to begin with.

What really irks me here is that the only reason something like this gets on the news to begin with is that people hope they're going to see a wreck, shootout, etc. That's why people watch. I actually have no problem with that. I do have a problem with the blatant hypocrisy of showing the tease, but cutting away from the moneyshot, and then everyone pretending that it's because we're all of too morally elevated a nature to watch something like that.

Comments

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

My guess is that they're playing CYA. If they show someone's death live, they're opening themselves to a big fat lawsuit from the family.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what grounds they'd sue on. He killed himself out in public, where anyone could see.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fluffy/]

Well at least you realize Fox news can be hypocritical. Just realize that applies in spades to their political coverage.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Like Fox News themselves, I strive to be Fair and Balanced in my criticisms.

[reptilemammal.livejournal.com]

It's if the children see it, or folks would like to copy cat splats themselves, but being in the morally high ground you may not think that minds are so malleable.

Personally I am of the opinion that copy cat splats might help reduce population, though maybe we'd also lose some of our finer minds because they have had a suicidal tendency and feell they need to act on it because of the pressure. So overall yeah media shouldn't be showing folks killing themselves in front of a live studio audience.