Our
View: Media mishandle fires by forgetting
sensitivity
All
of us have seen the portrayal of the media
as scoop-hungry reporters, vultures lurking
around disasters waiting to bombard suffering
relatives with questions, microphones and
cameras. Sometimes we forget that these
people are not just fabrications by script
writers. The fires around the Southland
have brought out the best and maybe the
worst in the residents of Southern California.
On
one hand we have tales of brave residents
staying behind armed only with a water hose
to save their homes and those of their neighbors.
A man in Ventura County told the local 4-H
kids that he would save their barn, and
he stayed and was going to make sure that
he did.
On
the other side of the spectrum, some people
have been chased away from areas where people
were actually looting abandoned homes. What
kind of place do we live in when people
can't even flee danger without human ultures
trying to come up by other peoples suffering?
And
then there's the reporters. Some are out
on the beat, finding the stories that matter,
making sure the heroes get their day and
the people get the news they need. But somehow,
some reporters think that coming across
a scene of incomprehensible sadness and
grief by a homeowner coming back to their
charred home is a prefect time to stick
a microphone and a camera in their face
and ask them how they feel.
Hopefully,
this kind of thing could never get past
a code of ethics on a newspaper. The exploitation
of other people's grief should be the last
thing media outlets seek to do. With all
of the news, the heroes and the happenings,
do viewers or readers really need to know
how it feels to lose everything you own?
Maybe people deserve a moment by themselves
or with their families to collect their
thoughts, cry, pray or do whatever it is
that they need to do to feel right. Reporters
are humans who own homes too, would we want
someone in our face with a microphone and
a camera? Heck no, we'd deck them.
If
news media want to continue to reach the
public they must be sensitive to the public's
concerns. Invading the privacy and the grief
of normal people does not count as being
sensitive, and certainly is not part of
gathering the news. Reporters should remember
that, not just in this situation, but in
all situations where a person's grief and
right to privacy outweigh the good the information
could do for a reader.
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