ITV News showed a dying man. Am I the only one who was upset?

[Easy]

Watching coverage of the Polish exhibition hall collapse at the weekend, I was pretty horrified to see coverage of a man who was crushed and trapped. He was wailing and shuddering, and clearly was dying. This was shown in the opening section of the late evening news, and again as the main coverage of the disaster.

I was even more upset to see the same film (but I think a longer section) shown in the bulletin last night.
I don't need to see a man who is dying to believe that people are dying. I don't think it showed any respect for the man who was dying. And shouldn't the camera man have put down his camera and tried to get the poor guy out ?

I am planning to write to ITV news about this, but dh says I'll just get marked down as some Mrs Angry.

Anyone feel like me? or am I just squeamish?

Wasn't there a whole big debate about this after the Hillsborough disaster when fans were seen being crushed on the terraces, and then images printed in the nespapers.

I don't need to see these images to believe a story is real or to be upset by it. I certainly don't want my 3 year old seeing these images, which is so plikely when they are in our newsapers and on pre water-shed TV>

homemama - those 9/11 images will stay with me forever. I still find it horrendous to have seen them and really hope that the family/friends of those poor desperate people didn't see them or were unable to identify them in the photos.

Unfortunately I think showing such graphic images only makes us more immune and it will take increasingly shocking photos to move us
It's not that long ago I was horrified if I saw a body you could never identify in a blurred photo. These days you get someone's death live on tv......

When Al-Jazeerah showed images of american soldiers they we're accused by the west of breaching international law, regardless of the fact the west shows pictures of dead Iraqi's - double standards of course. Al-Jazeerah also show pictures of Iraqi victims of US strikes too.

Hulababy, some 'people' of religious persuation actually wrote to the victims families (of people who fell/jumped/whatever, we can hardly know from the towers) and told them their fathers, mothers, sone, daughters, etc were going to hell for commiting suicide.

I totally agree with yoru first post Easy.
Watching the poor souls jump from the burning towers on 9/11 was horrific but close up shots of people in such pain and agony at the end of their life seems unbelievable. It is hard to imagine how the camer operator could stand there and film away instead of putting it down and doing something really worthwhile even holding a hand, carrying supplies etc Probably a naive view of mine, but I just don?t understand their ability to film away in such moments - and those who think it is worthy of televising.

I watched a documentary a few weeks ago about witchcraft infiltrating the UK via African Evangelical type extreme churches - th elink between these churches and child abuse. Premise being that there were several leading "churchmen" come over from Nigeria (I think) who were casting out devils and telling parents that their childre were witches/devils etc who were trying to kill their parents. Truly horrendous ideas. The worst moment was when the documentary team went over to Africa to see the work of these people in action and you were shown a shot of a grown man leaning over a young boy (5 or 6?) who was sitting on a small stool. He was chanting/shouting at him over and over, drinking from a bottle (looked like beer tbh) and spitting it in the boys face over and over. He boys was wretched and choking. They cut the shot and the presenter went on to say that the team were helpless and unable to save one child being killed - Iread this meaning the little boy in the shot although Dh wasn?t sure. I can see that boys face still now and slept so badly. Oh God. I am crying about it all over again now

That is a truely horrific story. I've seen footage of adults being attacked and killed in various zone's of conflict and for various reasons. The camera-perosn and reporter usually site that if they interveined they would be attacked too. But there is a deeply troubling aspect to this type of journelism, not least because we have no idea if people are driven to even more extreme acts simply because the camera is there or because that's what teh reporter is expecting and what began as bravardo tyrns into murder on camera; a self fulfilling prophecy, if you like.

It's hard to understand how anyone could watch a child being attacked and killed and not interveine. There has to be some serious questions asked of and by the reporter and the journalistc validity of such reports. What channel was this programme on? I'd like to follow it up.

At least one member of the bang bang club commited suicide, so it's not hard to see that these questions do plague the people who take the images.

[quote]the fault lies with the news editor[/quote]

I don't think so. The fault lies with a society where cameramen can still think of a good news photo instead of trying to help a person.

This should be the first lesson to teach a child: If you see someone in trouble, particularly near death, help first, think of anything else later.

monkettrousers - that is awful. How horrendous for the family.

You definitely have a point PD. The idea that the pictures must be taken and shown around the world to bring attention to a situation have some validity, but they are not worth the premeditated loss of one human life. And we have to think about the value of such images in today's postmodern world, where very quickly they will be replaced by another image of horror, brutality or war: and then another and another. When someone is deluged with such images over and over their is a tendency to leave them dispairing about he enormity of it all and that leads to apathy and inaction rather than action. Too often it's simply about rubbernecking, horrifically fascinating but ultimately useless for the people suffering on the other side of the camera.

And then we have attitudes like Easy's boyfriend, who see the images yet don't want to complain because they might be conceived of as petty and sad. I'd say you could think of yourself as the opposite Easy, and be proud of making a stand. If more of us made such small yet important moves the world would begin to change. Even complaining about cruel bus drivers will eventually do something positive for your community.

..I'll get off my soapbox now...

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