tragedy and the media

Rain and sleet may have contributed to the fatal I-65 crash.

Yesterday, there was a nasty wreck on I-65 southbound involving a tractor-trailer and an SUV. The passenger of the SUV was killed. The crash happened at dawn, but it took seven hours to clear the wreckage from the interstate, meaning tons of people -- myself included -- were late to their jobs. 

A cook I work with was in traffic for two hours. One customer, who was visibly shaken, said it had taken him two and a half hours to get to the restaurant from his house. His wife told him to turn around and come home, but an hour in, he felt he was on a quest and refused. 

In trying to figure out what had happened -- and why it was taking so long to fix -- I hopped on the Tennessean's Web site at work. The newspaper had posted a video, showing the smashed-up SUV, the front of the tractor-trailer, emergency workers and, finally, an empty stretcher. Then, the video cut off. The body was not shown. 

A glance through the online comments section re-raised the age-old media ethics question -- how much is too much? The majority of the comments slammed the newspaper for showing the footage. One person called the newspaper money-hungry "savages" and claimed the video would give the "relatives of the victim ... nightmares for the next 20 years." Another called the video "gruesome voyeurism."

In my view, a poster named "JoeMarma" was the "voice of reason" in all the hubbub. Here is an excerpt of his comment: 

"Get a grip people. The Tennessean is doing its job. I-65 being shut down for 6 hrs is big news here in Nashville. Thousands of people were likely affected and want to know what happened. The Tennessean has a video of the cause. They reported it."   

Whew ... thank you, "Joe." ... Look, I know I'm biased. I have a master's degree in journalism. I was a reporter on-and-off for 10 years, including three years at a wire service where our focus was on breaking news, including car crashes, fires, train derailments and traffic jams. I firmly believe that once you are a reporter, you will always be a reporter even if you're no longer working in the field, and I am proud to be one for life. 

But that aside, basically what we're talking about here is the media being bashed for making the viewer uncomfortable. Isn't that one of the most powerful and vital roles of the press? Think of the images captured in the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. Or, more recently, Hurricane Katrina. It is this logging of history and the ability to inform the general public that heightens journalism to the noble profession that it is. Will this wreck go down in history as significant? No. But the basic principle is the same.

A friend of mine in L.A. is the famed Associated Press photographer Nick Ut. You may not have heard of him, but you'd recognize his work. He took the famous June 1972 photo of Kim Phuc, better known as the naked girl screaming in pain after being burned by a napalm attack in her Vietnamese village. Nick followed the girl to the hospital and pleaded with doctors to care for her. Only when she was on the operating table did he leave and return to the AP headquarters in Saigon to turn in his film. The girl survived and they remain extremely close today.  

That photo is powerful, frightening, emotional, scary and very uncomfortable to view. The AP almost didn't run it because of the frontal nudity. An exception was made because of the news value of the photo. Nick won the Pulitzer for it. Thank God it was in the papers for all of the world to see. 

Check out Nick's amazing career and work (including the picture of Kim Phuc) at this AP site: asap.ap.org/data/interactives/_news/nick_ut/index.html

I'd like to close this episode of my blog with my favorite snarky comment from the Tennessean yesterday. This one was posted by "jaded."

"I hate a free, independent press. ... I want my news from the government. Then I will know it will be accurate, safe, sanitized, and acceptable to the lowest common denominator like my 3 year old toddler. What's next? I bet the lousy press would like to show coffins coming back from Iraq. Wait -- they're not allowed to do that. And a good thing that it, lest everyone see firsthand the cost of war. ... I'm so glad the government's looking out for me and making my life morally simple. I sleep much better at night that way."