[BC] We do it because we can, not because it is right

[Robert Meuser]

Sounds like an whiney politically correct old lady who worries too much. 
If I were ever in such a situation I would take my 15 minutes of  fame 
and cash out.

R



Reader wrote:

> 9-1-1-CALLS AND PRIVACY - REVISITED
> By 
> <http://www.wsmv.com/danmillersnotebook/9571491/detail.html?taf=nash>Dan 
> Miller
> WSMV.COM
>
> A TV station in Cleveland recently ran audio of a horrifying 9-1-1 
> call by a mother, who found her 6-year old daughter had drowned. 
> Obviously, many people heard the woman's tortured call on the 
> station's newscasts.
> It's an audio tape I never want to hear.... and I can't imagine 
> anybody would. There's more to the story.
> Because it aired that emergency call, WOIO-TV may lose it's lucrative 
> contract to broadcast Cleveland Browns preseason games. It happens 
> that the mother, whose frantic call on July 9th was played on the 
> station's newscasts, is the sister of Randy Lerner, the owner of the 
> Cleveland Browns. Lerner was so upset at the exploitation of his 
> family that he no longer wants anything to do with the station, and no 
> longer wants his team's preseason games broadcast on WOIO-TV.
> According to Associated Press, Lerner said, "Our organization is 
> disgusted and shocked and therefore having trouble, just like any 
> disgusted and shocked person would have, in continuing in a 
> collaborative relationship." None of this surprises me.... in fact, I 
> completely understand Lerner's outrage.
> For me, the exploitation of 9-1-1 calls by broadcasters has long been 
> an uncomfortable and, frankly, embarrassing reality. On two occasions, 
> I have written essays here about this.
> I'll link you to them a few lines down. Though many of my fellow 
> journalists and news executives strongly disagree with me, I don't 
> believe we should even be allowed routine access to 9-1-1 calls.
> I consider it a gross, uncomfortable intrusion into the agony and deep 
> personal trauma -- or even the simple excitability -- experienced by 
> people placing emergency calls to 9-1-1. We all like to say we'd show 
> restraint and sensitivity.
> But too many times, we don't.
> Whenever there's a dramatic emergency, or crime, or disaster, the 
> first question asked by news producers will be, "are the 9-1-1 tapes 
> available yet?"
> And if they are.... somebody, somewhere, will use them. Sure, those 
> tapes are technically "public records".... but so are autopsy photos, 
> and gruesome crime and accident scenes, and we don't show those... 
> even when we have permission from judges.
> And personally, I think hearing the actual voice of someone in utter 
> distress is even more intrusive and disturbing.
>
> Here's a point I made in one of my earlier essays.
>
> I truly fear that someday someone -- maybe you -- will hesitate, or 
> decide against calling 9-1-1, simply because you know that your voice, 
> filled with terror or emotion, will likely be heard over and over 
> again on television newscasts.
>
> After that moment of hesitation.... it might be too late.
> That would be a tragedy.
>
>
> <http://danmiller.typepad.com/dan_millers_notebook/2006/07/a_matter_of_pri.html>A 
> MATTER OF PRIVACY
>
>
> <http://danmiller.typepad.com/dan_millers_notebook/2006/07/the_exploitatio.html>THE 
> EXPLOITATION OF 9-1-1 CALLS
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
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>