Yesterday the swat team shot a guy dead and a nearby witness recorded the whole thing with his camera from his balcony. 7News used parts of the recording in their report.
Including what you see below. The swat team dragging the dead man’s body, face down, over the asphalt. Uncensored, unpixelated, unblurred. I added the pixelation in Photoshop.
They have now run this video at least 3 times. Last night at 10pm, maybe at 11pm too, and already twice this morning so it can’t be an accident or an oversight on their part. It’s deliberate.
Now, I’m no prude by any stretch of the imagination and I’m most definitely not easily offended (offendable?). Easily pissed off maybe but as far as offending me it’ll take all 4 TV networks at once and a lot of trying to do it. And I happen to think reports from Iraq are too sanitized.
But when I saw Rene Marsh’s report on 7News this morning and this poor guy’s body dragged over the pavement face down without even a little pixelation I was like “What the fuck were they thinking?”. And not only in my mind.
And I don’t know what they were thinking. If they were even thinking at all. It pissed me off enough to write this post and edit it 4 times already due to too much “bad” language.
I like my 7News, but this stunt was stupid, over the top and dare I say disgusting. And just plain idiotic. Or maybe I’m too sleep deprived and over reacting.
What do you think? Am I right? Wrong? Whiny? Should the 7News editors have ran the video in the first place or at least added some pixelation?
You can watch the report on WSVN’s site here and judge for yourself
Channels 4, 6 and 10 covered the story as well. Only WFOR, at least their 11pm story, used the same video footage from the witness but only the part where the body was laying near bushes and added a large blurred area to conceal it even though you could barely see it!
Admin, you’re spot on IMO, but that’s The (tabloid) News Station for you. Typical.
If it bleeds it leads.
There is no reason to show the video. I think some over zealous producer or reporter did this and, of course it SWEEPS, so go overboard everyone and beg for viewers any way you can.
Please the video is not that bad. Seen worse in movies.
there was nothing intentional about this…not because its sweeps, not for the shock value, nothing. the person who shot the video sold it to all the stations for A LOT of money and the stations felt compelled to use it.
what you DIDN’T see (yes, it WAS edited..) was the guy actually getting shot and falling to the ground!!
you’re absolutely right that dead bodies aren’t usually shown on the air. in the case of this story, he was not yet dead…he was pronounced at the hospital…we see transports all the time. this time, it was just a little more graphic than usual.
i guess there could’ve been a warning in the script before the story, but it could’ve been A LOT worse…trust me, i saw the original tape…
This is not bad at all you see the same thing with the war in Iraq
The man was shot there but died in the hospital so technically he wasn’t even dead so they weren’t showing a dead body. Yea it could be disturbing watching that but its not a lonely case.
Wait till a week from now when 7 runs the “family demanding answers” followup. It’s not as bad as a movie, it’s worse-it’s real, remember. This guy is no hero, either. What purpose does showing it serve? Does anyone running a local news operation even think this hard when putting their mightly shows together? No. It’s obvious. I still expect a story about showing the body so they can go back and show Art Teele dead at the Herald, too.
It’s so easy to pile on Channel 7. Their reputation precedes them… but guess which station used the UNEDITED video as a promotion for their web site?
Yes, that would be Channel 10, your “pillar” of local news, that spends countless amounts of programming each day telling you how “unsensational” they are. Which apparently does not apply to their web site, where you can watch a guy get shot, and killed, uncensored.
Don’t believe me?
http://www.local10.com/news/15982329/detail.html
Not even Channel 7 lacked enough taste to do this.
So gin up all the righteous indignation you want about 7 News. Just check your reputation at the door.
I checked you link to the local10 site. It does not show what you claim it shows. Either they changed it or you are misinformed.
Apart from that point, there is a big difference between showing the raw video on a web site where a person has the choice to watch it and showing it on a broadcast.
I’m not one who would choose to watch the video, unlesss it is to check what now seems unfounded claims by an earlier poster.
That does not mean I think it’s wrong for others to make their own choices. No public airwaves are used when a person chooses to click and view the raw material. It is their choice and they have the right to make it. Especially if they are wanting to see if the officers acted in a manner they agree with, and their stomachs can handle seeing that kind of reality.
The Channel 10 people apparently don’t understand the term ‘unedited’. By making that ‘mistake’ they guaranteed people would look. Very questionable. Like all local TV stations, they made the voluntary choice not to show the man’s death on the air or on the web. But like their TV promo the night of the shooting, their website promo promised more than it delivered. Why do you think they did it?
Say what you want, but all except 7 did a sensitive job. 7’s choice to show the man being dragged, alive or dead, by the officers who shot him was simply bad judgment and someone needs to take a hard look at that.
We all need to remember something I think is forgotten in all of these discussions. This guy was somebody’s family member. This guy had a mother, a father and people who loved him. Regardless of his status as good or bad in our community, there are people who will see this video and hurt because it is being shown. Journalists are supposed to be keepers of something sacred. When a journalist ducks under the line of doing what is morally upright in order to get ratings, he or she has lost a part of the spirit of what journalism is supposed to be about. Somebody made money from this video of a person killed and dragged like an animal. That is sick. And what is worse, it seems there was nobody who stepped forward inside the station(s) to say THIS IS WRONG. Is there ANYONE at 7 who steps forward to management and protests when they get graphic? I think NOT.
Where’s Glenna Milberg when you need her?!
I saw channel 7’s story on Friday with a different Reporter. Venessa Medina didn’t show the dragging. At least she thought not too.. or her superiors knew better.
who cares if the man had family, he took hostages, was armed and refused to drop his weapon. Its quite a simple case, you hold a gun with police around and dont listen, you will get shot.
Next point…. I am disappointed that they did not show the actual shots, maybe drive reality into people watching that if you fuck up really bad like that, there are consequences that can happen. I say show every bit of video you have, its the news, its not supposed to be all nice and censored, hell I dont even like that its politically correct, and i cringe everytime i hear the word “alleged”.
Here in Chicago over the past week there have been over 50 shootings and at least 14 deaths. I would think that if there was video of the actual violance aired all over that the rate would drop.
Just my opinion
i agree mike…if you look at the ratings recently, no one is watching local news, anyways…so why not just show it? who are you going to offend??
nobody? 😉