Plain Dealer Columnist Michael McIntyre , fellow blogger and journalist Ed Esposito, and Scene Magazine each weighed in on my story/blog with differing views and insight.
To be honest, I had to chuckle at Scene blogger Gus Garcia-Roberts' line of: "Mansfield was so appalled that he went all Carl Monday on the kid’s ass, airing a segment blasting the student for attempting to “make a buck on his school’s tragedy.”
I don't think I'm quite ready for life in the trenchcoat just yet .. but thanks for the visual (photo courtesy: cleveland.indymedia.org).
Among the emails I received, a few are worth sharing:
Susan writes: "The teen and his mother seeking money for the video clip is a prime example of how our society has no shame when it comes to money and how more & more the need to be helpful without a price is vanishing. However....the media fuels this type of behavior. The media is so caught up with being the 'first to report' that it is willing to be held hostage for money, which in turn develops more greed instead of possibly promoting good Samaritans. "
Ricky weighs in with: "Kind of hypocritical to infer that the kid (or apparently his agent/mother) should be ashamed for trying to make money off of the school shooting, don't you think? At least he's a direct victim of this terrorism. Your commercial news operation is not. Aren't you making money from this tragedy via your paychecks from Gannett which is making money through the spots during your newscast and those spots that come up RIGHT AFTER HORRIFIC VIDEO OF THE EVENT online? Because you're paid to be at these bad events, Mr. Mansfield's report was a little like saying, 'do as we say, not as we do.' But hey, at least you don't cross the line as obviously as that OIOther station."
Some messages and emails blast the kid and his mom .. others blast the media (me included) for challenging his right to make money .. and a third group slams all of the above.
Still, it remains a great ethical debate .. and again, my primary concern is that teens aren't given the message that their first thought at a violent event should be "how can I make a buck on this" instead of "shouldn't I be ducking for cover or calling 9-1-1"?
Keep your thoughts coming .. a healthy debate can only make our craft better .. Eric
Among the emails I received, a few are worth sharing:
Susan writes: "The teen and his mother seeking money for the video clip is a prime example of how our society has no shame when it comes to money and how more & more the need to be helpful without a price is vanishing. However....the media fuels this type of behavior. The media is so caught up with being the 'first to report' that it is willing to be held hostage for money, which in turn develops more greed instead of possibly promoting good Samaritans. "
Ricky weighs in with: "Kind of hypocritical to infer that the kid (or apparently his agent/mother) should be ashamed for trying to make money off of the school shooting, don't you think? At least he's a direct victim of this terrorism. Your commercial news operation is not. Aren't you making money from this tragedy via your paychecks from Gannett which is making money through the spots during your newscast and those spots that come up RIGHT AFTER HORRIFIC VIDEO OF THE EVENT online? Because you're paid to be at these bad events, Mr. Mansfield's report was a little like saying, 'do as we say, not as we do.' But hey, at least you don't cross the line as obviously as that OIOther station."
Some messages and emails blast the kid and his mom .. others blast the media (me included) for challenging his right to make money .. and a third group slams all of the above.
Still, it remains a great ethical debate .. and again, my primary concern is that teens aren't given the message that their first thought at a violent event should be "how can I make a buck on this" instead of "shouldn't I be ducking for cover or calling 9-1-1"?
Keep your thoughts coming .. a healthy debate can only make our craft better .. Eric
2 comments:
Eric, I agree with your thought that this kind of story creates an incentive for people to put themselves in danger when tragedy strikes in order to try and make some money. That is a dangerous precedent. I suppose this kind of thing is just an extension of what sites like TMZ do with celebrity photos and video.
Any idea which network it was? Do you think the network that paid the money made the family sign a confidentiality agreement to protect the news organization from embarrassment?
Kyle,
The day the teen was "marketing" his tape, all of th networks were on the street talking with him about it. I'm not sure how much NBC ultimately paid, but after the kid announced he'd received two grand from Inside Edition, that seemed to be his going rate for networks, cable channels, and local stations alike.
For what it's worth, it seemed like I was in the minority in he mob of reporters and producers with the others having no problems calling their bosses to see how much they might pony up.
Thanks for seeing my point about the difference between buying this video for big $$ versus paying a set fee for other types of home or amateur video.
I really fear that the next one of these could lead to a teen with dollars on the brain getting his own brains scrambled instead of getting help for those in harm's way.
Stay in touch .. Eric
Post a Comment